Halo: Survival
by bale626
Summary: When one war of survival ends, fate brings a group of brothers back together to fight another war of survival. A/U Crossover. - *Discontinued*
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Ok, this brain-child of mine is due to a rather disproportionate number of people in the Mass Effect section who enjoy hammering on stories that don't fit the "pro quo" of stereotypes and characters. So, to hell with that, and on to better and brighter idea(s).

I don't know if any of you noticed, but there seems to have been a decent number of Spartans that "disappeared" in really close proximity to Forerunner devices, and weird things tend to happen around aforementioned devices. To get to the point, I'm going to be dragging a few of them through the instabilities of damaged or screwy Forerunner tech into this story. If you don't like the sheer amount of coincidence/happenstance of having a few Spartans all travel into the same alternate dimension, then don't bother reading, or commenting on it, because it's going to happen. Sorry, but it's my story, and I'm going to write it how I want.

Also, I will be using some ships/vehicles and likely a few weapons that aren't really used in the halo universe, except as concept ideas, or mentioned only in passing. (I.E. Shield-Generator Ship, Cougar AFV, F-99 unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle, etc.)

Beyond that, I'll be taking a couple of liberties with a few things, generally things that aren't specifically stated in the Halo wikia; for the most part, if I'm not sure, I'll just compare against other things that **are** referenced, and I'll extrapolate from there.

So, let's embark on a new journey with the Master Chief, shall we?

* * *

Halo: Survival

Chapter 1

"_They let me pick. Did I ever tell you that? Choose whichever Spartan I wanted. You know me. I did my research. Watched as you became the soldier we needed you to be. Like the others, you were strong and swift and brave. A natural leader. But you had something they didn't. Something no one saw, but me. Can you guess...? Luck."_

That thought and so many more repeated through Cortana's mind, as the black void of space threatened to subsume her consciousness, as it had for so long already. She wasn't sure how long it had been; her sense of self-awareness had fluctuated so many times that she had accidentally erased the date and time log within the Forward Unto Dawn's computer systems.

This time, however, as Cortana stared off into the void, she could feel her mind leveling out, as it were, as though it had finally reached a level of equilibrium. Intrigued by this new change, Cortana began running a self diagnostic program, scanning the layers and layers of code that made up her very existence. It took her eons of her own time, but in reality, only seconds passed. As the diagnostics program finished, Cortana's mind ground to a halt in confusion; parts of her code had changed, thoroughly in a few places.

Taking a mental 'step back,' Cortana examined her core code overall, and her mind was filled with shock when she came to a startling realization; her code now closely resembled that of the Forerunner monitor Mendicant Bias, indicating to her that she may have attainted metastability. She quickly dashed that thought, unable and unwilling to possibly hope for such a possibility.

Before she was able to examine her own code any more thoroughly, a blip on the Forward Unto Dawn's remaining sensors caught her whole and undivided attention. After her micro-eternity of absolute silence and stagnation, the first blip since being trapped in only half a ship was something worth devoting her entire attention to. Focusing the sensors on the blip, Cortana was able to extrapolate a vague outline of the shape. It only took her a microsecond to figure out the blip to be an artificial construct.

Her holographic avatar materialized in front of her Spartan's cryo-chamber, and she looked down at his still form, debating with herself whether or not to wake him. In a matter of moments, she finally decided that she was better off taking a chance and waking Spartan 117, just in case. It only took a simple thought to activate the wake-cycle of the pod, and steam silently hissed out from the back compartments of the pod, the pressure leaking out of the sealed pod, the vapor insta-freezing in the vacuum of space.

After what seemed like an eternity to the AI, her Spartan finally stirred, silently moving his limbs from within the enclosed pod, reaching up and pulling himself up and out, his feet reverberating against the hull without a sound, simply the vibration of sudden movement. His visor then turned up, the polarized glass painting the reflection of Cortana's avatar back towards her. "What'd I miss?" The AI's avatar flashed slightly, smiling at the sound of his voice.

"We've been drifting out here for quite some time, John. I detected something moving closer to us. Whether it's actively moving towards us, or just drifting like we are, I can't say for sure." The Spartan nodded, reached out, and almost immediately, Cortana moved from the ship's computer systems into the Spartan's MJOLNIR armor.

John couldn't help but shiver at the sensation of cool liquid iron being poured down through his nervous system, a sensation that, strangely enough, felt somewhat different this time around. "Cortana, did something happen to you?" At first, Cortana didn't answer, a hesitation the Spartan picked up on right away.

"John... I think I went through rampancy... and more than once." John stopped dead at that. He knew the ramifications of an AI that had devolved into the state of rampancy; losing their very sense of self, actively becoming destructive, both to themselves, and to those around them. Before John could say anything else, Cortana continued, "Just before I detected the anomaly, I was examining my own code; there's a chance, albeit a slim one, that I may have hit a level of metastability."

John's head snapped upwards, and he spoke to Cortana, "Wait... what is metastability?"

"It's a theoretical state of being for an AI, where the AI in question reaches a level beyond rampancy, where they are able to gain a level of awareness, consciousness, and morality on a level with a sentient organic, such as yourself." Spartan 117 was no slouch when it came to understanding and knowledge; this, however, was extremely far beyond his level of know-how.

"It's something we can discuss later; right now, we have a disturbance to focus on, can you tell me anything else about it?" John finally shook himself out of his stupor, and walked over to pick up his MA5C assault rifle, while Cortana explained to him what she could.

"I can't tell a whole lot about the object in question, but I have been able to determine that it is absolutely massive; over two and a half kilometers at its longest point. If our current course holds steady, we'll come close to ramming the thing, very likely scrapping past it, just barely." The Spartan just nodded, busily engaged in checking his assault rifle. He grimaced when he pulled out the clip, seeing only three rounds still left.

"Cortana, is there an armory left in this half of the ship?" The AI just laughed inside of his head, her amusement quite evident.

"I figured you'd ask that. There's one armory about three decks down, and you're in luck; it should be void of atmosphere like most of the rest of the ship, so the ammo should still be operational." John just nodded, and after disengaging his mag-locked boots, propelled himself through the zero-G environment of the bisected ship. He noted the various pieces of debris floating around the ship, but was infinitely grateful to see that there were no bodies drifting in the Dawn, an indication that everyone had evacuated the ship in time.

"How long was I in cryo?" A seeming lead weight began to form as there was a few moments of silence, something that was never usually a good sign with a smart AI. "Cortana?"

"Honestly, Chief? I don't really know. During one of my rampant bouts, I must have erased the date and time from the system, because I can't figure out how long it's been, no matter what I try. I'm sorry, John." The Spartan just nodded, and propelled himself down an empty elevator shaft, before stopping at the floor Cortana had indicated.

A few minutes of floating, John found himself in front of the armory. He pulled the emergency lever, the door to the armory sliding open in response. Pulling himself in, John smiled behind his helmet at the sight of an almost full armory, enough of everything for him to have whatever choice he wanted or needed in weaponry.

Drifting over towards the floating weapons, the Spartan grabbed a battle rifle, as well as multiple clips of ammunition, strapping them onto his armor. Next, came an M6D pistol, attached onto his thigh, with matching clips. He then moved throughout the rest of the armory, gathering together other weapons, tossing all of them into a trio of duffle bags. Using a strand of rope, he tied the three bags together, and attached the rope to his waist, pulling them along as he drifted towards the hangar bay. "Cortana, do we have a Pelican inside the hangar?"

"Affirmative; from the readings I'm getting, it seems that the Pelican still has most of its fuel supply, so it'll get us to where we need to go, so long as where we need to go is that disturbance." John just let out a sigh, relieved to be able to hear Cortana's witty sarcasm once again.

It took the Spartan all of about ten minutes to finally reach the hangar bay, and he let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the Pelican, sitting firmly in place by the mag-locks holding it down. He reached down, pulling the duffel bags closer to him, and activated the mag-locks in his boots, and walked over to the back of the Pelican. After climbing in, John strapped the bags down, walked into the cockpit, and fired up the Pelican's engines, sealing the back hatch compartment. John pulled back the joystick, spinning the Pelican around. Punching the throttle, the Pelican launched out the open hangar bay, quickly leaving the wrecked ship behind.

Spinning the Pelican toward the disturbance, John's jaw dropped at the sight. "Cortana... is that really what I think it is?"

Cortana didn't respond, the sight of a Phoenix-class Colony ship, drifting into view, just as lifeless as the remaining half of the Forward Unto Dawn. "Chief... I'm not picking up any life signs aboard that ship."

The Spartan turned toward her avatar, an incredulous look on his face behind his helmet. "Cortana, that ship should have a crew of over ten thousand. What do you mean you're not picking up any life signs?"

"Exactly what I said, chief. There's not a single living thing aboard that ship. Look, let's just dock with it, and we'll see if we can't find some crew logs, assuming they're not just all in cryo-storage." The chief just nodded, and throttled the Pelican forward, maneuvering towards the massive ship's hangar bay. The silence in the Pelican was almost thick enough to cut with an energy sword as the Pelican moved closer to the derelict ship.

As they draw near, the chief mutters aloud, reading the ship's designation. "Babel's Tower... what a name for a ship. There's no ship IDC; do you think this was some kind of ONI ship?"

Cortana's avatar just shrugged, "I have no idea, chief; regardless, a whole ship is a hell of a lot better than half a ship, even if I have to be the one flying it." The chief nodded, swinging the Pelican towards an oddly open hangar bay. The vehicle deftly landed onto the deck in a highlighted area, the docking mechanisms automatically kicking in as the sensors picked up the landing Pelican. The Spartan then powered down the Pelican, unstrapping the restraints holding him in place, before moving out of the Pelican, immediately beginning his trek for the ship's bridge.

As he walked, John found himself walking through corridors just as empty as the ones from the Dawn. Finally, the Spartan stepped up to a computer terminal, and placed his hand onto it, allowing Cortana to download herself into the ship's computer systems. "Cortana, scan this ship from the inside; I want to know if there is anyone here, even if it's just their bodies."

"Got it, Chief." The Chief continued his walk, eventually reaching an elevator. Stepping inside, the Spartan let out a sigh of relief, seeing that the elevator he was in would take him to the bridge. He pressed the button, the elevator doors sliding closed, and the elevator began rising rapidly through the interior of the ship.

After a few minutes, the elevator slowed, and came to a stop, the doors opening onto the large, spacious bridge, void of any life or movement of any kind. The Spartan took a few tentative steps inward, holding his battle rifle at the ready. He lowered his gun as Cortana's avatar materialized above the central holotank of the bridge, staring at him expectantly.

"Chief, there's no signs of any life aboard this ship, living or dead. Everything's at full operational status, including the guns, and according to the data-logs, it's been this way for a while now." The Spartan opened his mouth to respond, but Cortana's image disappeared, an older man's voice replacing it through the bridge's speakers.

"This is Captain Patterson of the UNSC ship Babel's Tower, log one hundred fifty seven, year twenty five thirty. We just picked up the special package from the ONI spooks; it appears to be some kind of alien artifact, similar to the stuff the Covenant use, but much older, ancient even. No one really knows what it does, and the thing gives me a very bad feeling." The recording cut off, and another began, the man's voice sounding out again, this time much more strained.

"Captain Patterson, supplemental log. The Covenant have found us; we were in orbit of the planet Eridanus II, when a Covenant fleet appeared out of nowhere. We were preparing to drop supplies, and then head for Reach to have the Babel's Tower refitted with a MAC gun. Now, it seems, we're going to have to enact Cole protocol, and the last time we tried charging the slip-space drive with that device activated, it started giving off some strange radiation, which began interfering with the drive. I had wanted to run more tests, to see if it could be overcome, but we don't have the time. If we make it through this, we'll run more tests on the other side."

The log cut off, and Cortana reappeared above the holotank. "Chief, the ship made it through whatever slip-space jump they made, but it looks as though the entire crew just disappeared, right alongside whatever device they were carrying." John just looked up at the AI.

"So, we're drifting in space in a derelict UNSC ship, missing an artifact that ONI wanted, and said artifact may have killed off the entire crew in a randomized slip-space jump?" Cortana's holographic avatar just nodded.

"Yes Chief, something like that." The Spartan nodded, and began pacing around the bridge slowly.

"Cortana, can we take this ship back to Earth?" She nodded, a smile appearing on her face.

"Yes, we can. The nav. banks are still intact, and with the device seemingly gone, we should be able to make the jump without a problem. So long as you're ok with leaving the other half of the Dawn drifting like this." John nodded, before turning and walking up to the front window showing a large view of space.

"We can leave a nav. buoy here, and we can come back for the rest of the Dawn later. Right now our priority is to get back to UNSC-held space. Assuming there is still a UNSC to go back to." Cortana just nodded, not really knowing what to say to the Spartan. As Cortana moved the ship into position to initiate the slip-space drive, the Chief turned around, heading for the elevator.

"Chief, where are you going?" The Spartan continued walking towards the elevator as he responded.

"I'm going to find something to eat. Assuming there _is_ anything left to eat here."

It took John the better part of an hour to get down to the crew deck within the ship. As the Spartan entered the mess hall, his jaw dropped as he looked at the various tables, some with plates containing food on them. "Cortana?" A moment later, her voice rang out from his helmet.

"What is it, chief?" At first, the Chief didn't respond, as he walked over to the tables, slowly. "Chief? Talk to me; what's the problem?"

The Spartan keyed his mic, "Cortana, this food looks as though it's only been sitting here for a few days." Cortana's avatar appeared in front of him, using his suit to project her image in front of him.

"What? That's impossible! The Babel's Tower left Eridanus II in the year 2530! We left Earth for the Ark in 2552, and we were drifting for decades, at the very least!" The Spartan looked down at the food, only just beginning to show signs of fungal growth from sitting out in the open for a seeming few days.

"Cortana, I don't know what to tell you. But what I'm seeing with this food tells me the ship has only been drifting for a few days since its jump." Cortana's avatar just shook its head, obviously annoyed.

"Whatever. Look, Chief, just grab yourself some food from the storage, and get back onto the bridge as soon as you can. We'll be arriving at Earth in about an hour, and I want you on the bridge with me once we get there." John nodded, and quickly moved back into the kitchen, grabbing an insta-heat MRE from the back, carrying it with him as he jogged back to the elevator. While riding in the elevator, he began eating the insta-heat MRE, the packets of food chemically heating as they came in contact with the open air upon being opened.

Finally, another hour later, John made it back to the bridge, tossing the empty packaging into a waste receptacle. "Alright Cortana, how long until we drop out of slip-space?"

"Just a few seconds, actually." John nodded, and watched out the window as the ship left slip-space. As the planet came into view, John's jaw dropped. His eyes scanned the surface and the surrounding space around the planet, his mind uncomprehending to the sight in front of him.

"Cortana... there's no ships around Earth, no debris; there's no green anywhere visible on the planet. What's going on?" Cortana's hologram, still floating above the holotank, simply sits there, a look of shock on the AI's digital face.

"I... I don't know, Chief. I'm not picking up any UNSC frequencies anywhere down there. I'm going to start scanning... hold up; I'm picking up a slip-space disruption, just on the other side of the moon." Cortana's hologram is replaced by an image of the moon, showing the disturbance in question, the slip-space rupture spreading out, an energy sphere seemingly floating in space, before disappearing completely, a new energy signature in its place. "Scanning... John, it's a Covenant corvette, but it looks as though it brought something with it in its jump-wake. I'm running a profile scan; alright, I've got it. It seems that the corvette entered a jump window close enough to a Covenant cruiser, and brought part of it with."

"Cortana, get us over there; I want that corvette destroyed before it can get away from here and give the Covenant the location of Earth."

"Got it, Chief." John watched out the window as the lumbering colony ship began moving towards the moon, closer to the Covenant corvette. "Alright, Chief, you may want to get further inside the ship; this thing doesn't have a MAC gun, so we're going to have to take it in close to deal with that corvette." The Spartan nodded, and turned, quickly heading into the elevator to travel inside the ship. As the elevator began moving, the Spartan looked up towards the elevator's camera.

"Cortana, does this ship have a secondary bridge?"

"Yes, it does, but this will be done by the time I could get you there." The Spartan nodded, contemplating.

"Send me there, anyways; if the main bridge takes a hit, the secondary bridge will be all we have left."

"Got it, Chief." The elevator slowed, then began moving a different direction, picking up speed as it travelled through the inside of the Babel's Tower.

Cortana watched through the various cameras on the outer hull of the Babel's Tower, as the large colony ship moved towards the Covenant corvette. She mentally grimaced as the corvette began firing at the Babel's Tower, its pulse lasers impacting and boiling away sections of armor, a few even passing through less armored segments of the ship, into the inner bowels of the ship. Cortana couldn't help but feel frustrated as the enemy ship's energy weapons pounded into the colony ship as she tried to close the distance with the seemingly crippled Covenant ship.

After taking a few damaging hits, the Babel's Tower finally reached firing range, and Cortana opened fire with the ship's deck guns, the large caliber rounds impacting directly onto the much smaller ship's hull, some detonating on the surface, a few passing through the armor before detonating. After a trio of hits into the center of the ship, the Covenant corvette's lights began to flicker, before dying off completely, the ship's energy weapons falling silent. Cortana continued firing on the ship, pummeling it until the ship finally detonated in a massive fireball.

Cortana, satisfied with herself, sent a mental command to the ship's engines to move the Babel's Tower into orbit around Earth. When the ship didn't respond, she turned her focus from the space around her to a ship-wide internal diagnostics. A few seconds after starting, the results flashed within the AI's mind, causing her to panic.

"Chief, the Covenant ship scored a lucky hit on our engines; the ship is falling into the moon's gravitational pull, and I can't pull her out of it!"

The elevator stopped only a few seconds later, the doors sliding open onto one of the various decks. John immediately threw himself through the doorway, looking for something he could brace himself on. He adjusted his footing, the deck beneath him seeming to shift to an angle as the ship nose-dived toward the surface of the moon. He grimaced as he tried to walk in the tilted gravity, looking for something, anything strong enough to support his weight upon impact. Rounding a corner, the Chief breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of a massive support beam, easily large enough for him to use as a brace.

Stepping up to the beam, the Spartan pummeled his fist into the metal, the material giving way to his extreme strength, allowing him to use it as a make-shift hand hold. He repeated the process around the corner of the beam, giving himself two holds on the beam. Satisfied, he put his arms in the holes, and held himself steady, prepared for the collision. After only a few moments, he heard Cortana's voice, "Impact imminent!" John didn't even have time to process it, before the world around him became a maelstrom of screeching metal, as well as a hissing sound, a clear indicator of leaking atmosphere.

Cortana watched through the surviving cameras, the ones on the upper half of the ship, as the phoenix class colony ship ground its nose into the moon, digging a massive powdery trench into the surface, the sharp, fine powdery dust cutting through every glass view-port on the lower half of the ship. With a thought, Cortana closed every single bulkhead she could, protecting as much of the interior atmosphere as she could.

As the ship finally ground to a halt, Cortana let out an AI's version of a sigh of relief, simply satisfied that the ship hadn't exploded on impact, or shredded beyond all usefulness. She activated the ship's comm. unit, "Chief? Chief, can you hear me?" She waited a few moments, but worry overcame her senses, and she began scanning through all of the ship's still functioning internal cameras, looking through the images to try to find her Spartan. "John?"

The Master Chief let out a groan, his hands and forearms still encased in the metal of the support beam. He opened his eyes to see his head resting on the beam, his visor thankfully still intact. Wincing, he gingerly pulled his arms out from the beam, the muscles as sore as when he had ridden a piece of ship hull through atmospheric re-entry. Shaking his head, he looked up towards the ceiling, and activated his suit's comm. unit. "Cortana, you still there?"

The AI let out a laugh of relief, heard throughout the entire ghost ship. "Yes, Chief, I'm still here. I was more worried about _you_ still being here." The Spartan just shrugged, starting to walk off the soreness in his legs.

"It'd take more than a slight crash to bother me. What's the status of the ship?" John's brow furrowed as he heard the AI let out a sigh at the question.

"Honestly? I don't think we'll get her space-worthy again; not on our own, anyways. Babel's Tower took too much structural damage for us to fix alone, and the moon dust shattered every single lower deck window, as well as a few of the outer walls. We're going nowhere fast. On the bright side, most of the ship's functions are still operational; the hydroponics bay is located on the upper decks, so we won't be starving off just yet. All of the hangars containing the vehicles and aircraft are located on the mid and upper decks, so those are good to go. The only thing we really lost on impact was some lower docking hardpoints, as well as the back half of the engines."

The Spartan stopped for a moment, looking at one of the cameras, "So basically we have everything we need for just about any situation, except for leaving."

"Basically, yes." Cortana pauses, before continuing, "Hold on... I'm picking up movement out there; it looks like a Pelican flying our way." John immediately snapped to attention, before turning and running through the hallway.

"Direct that Pelican to the nearest open hangar bay. I'll go meet them myself." Cortana didn't respond, but presumably sent the message to the inbound Pelican. John ran through the halls, turning left and right at the various intersections, as Cortana highlighted the direction to go with waypoints in his MJOLNIR Mk V's HUD. After a few minutes of running, the Spartan finally made it to the hangar bay, the door unlocking as the internal pressure equalized with the interior of the ship. The door slid open, and John ran through, just as the back of the Pelican opened up, a massive armored figure walking out, carrying a huge machine gun in one hand, his helmet in the other.

John looked up at the grizzled face, the short grey hair on his head and face, accented by the scars present from multiple battles. The man smirked at the sight of John, who was nearly ready to collapse at the sight of another Spartan. "Hello John; it's been awhile, hasn't it?"

* * *

A/N: Damn; it's hellishly hard to be used to writing in the present tense, then to switch to writing all past tense. Biggest pain in the ass I've ever had to deal with.

Anyways, don't worry, I'll be getting around to the whole Fallout aspect of things soon enough.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I had some fun with this chapter, especially since I am part Irish... well, you'll see. And I apologize in advance if my representation of "accented speech" doesn't do the character justice; it's my first attempt with such a thing, so let me know how I do, if you would be so kind.

Also, I'm taking a couple of liberties with the internal design of a Covenant supercarrier, specifically as to where its reactor is located. Or one of its reactors. Whatever.

Just a side-note: I find myself listening to the Halo Wars soundtrack as I write this, and for some reason, in my head, it just seems to fit. Just... don't ask.

* * *

Halo: Survival

Chapter 2

Stunned, John unconsciously took a single step forward, still not believing his eyes. "J-Jorge? But you're dead!"

The other Spartan looked down at himself, examining his armor and body, before looking back up at the Chief, a grin on his face. "Well, I don't feel dead. And I would hazard a guess I probably wouldn't be in my MJOLNIR armor if I were."

Smiling behind his helmet, John took a few more steps, reaching out and taking Jorge's hand, shaking it. "It's good to see you, Jorge."

Jorge nodded, the smile still evident on his face. "You too, chief." After a moment, Jorge turned back towards the Pelican, and called out, "You guys can come out now." John took a step around Jorge, looking into the Pelican just as a trio of marines came walking out, half-jumping from the back of the Pelican's cargo bay onto the floor of the hangar bay, their boots creating an echoing report in the massive open space. As John could see, two of the marines were men, and the third was a woman, all of which were wearing Special Forces ODST helmets covering their faces. One of the two men walked up in front of the other two, and took his helmet off, revealing a man almost as pale as any Spartan, with bright, flaming red hair.

"Oy, sorry 'ta crash yer party, tin-man, but yer look-alike here thought it best if we left t'at covvie wreck 'fore you went and blew it to pieces!" John turned his head towards Jorge, a slight tilt of his head, barely noticeable, the only sign of John's confusion.

Jorge smirked, before elaborating, "Chief, this is Corporal O'Malley, our resident Irishman-" The corporal whirled on the much larger Spartan, his face turning a shade of red akin to the red of his hair.

"I'm scot'ish, you louse! You insult my integrity, sir, by even deigning to group my family line with those ingrates... wait, you did t'at on purpose, din'it you?" Jorge's smirk turned into a full-on grin, causing the corporal to mutter under his breath, the other two ODST's snickering behind him.

As John watched on with a measure of confusion, a detail from the after-mission report he had received after the battle of Reach came to his mind, which he promptly addressed, "Jorge, the post-mission briefing stated that your Pelican was inoperable, forcing you to stay behind. What happened?"

Jorge shrugged, "Well, it'd be easier to show you, rather than try to explain it to you." Before Jorge was able to say anything else, O'Malley turned back towards the Pelican and yelled out.

"Oy, git out here, you gas-bag!" After a moment, a purplish creature came floating out of the Pelican, its light blue tentacles hanging lazily below its body. It looked at the two Spartans curiously, intrigued. At that moment, a slight whirring sound caught John's attention, and he turned in time to see Cortana's avatar materialize next to him, nearly full-sized.

"You managed to snag a Covenant engineer?" Jorge just nodded, his brow furrowed in confusion, as he looked between Cortana and the other Spartan.

"A friend of yours, Chief?" The other Spartan just nodded, so Jorge continued, "well, apparently while we were busy fighting off the Covenant forces aboard the corvette after the initial jump, this thing worked its magic on the Pelican, fixing it right up. Then, it decided to re-activate the slipspace drive we had used to trap the corvette in the first place, bringing the corvette, as well as the remaining piece of the Covenant super carrier that had been dragged with us, back out of slipspace, where we saw your ship moving to engage the corvette. We decided it would be a good idea to evac the Covenant ship while we still could, in the hopes that your ship would take it out. Thankfully, we gambled correctly; which brings us to here... where is here, exactly?"

John shrugged, then gestured to the ship around them, "We're on the ship Babel's Tower; as for where we are, and how we got here... that's a bit of a tale in and of itself..."

* * *

Consciousness came slowly to Anton, a dull ache in his left side. Biting his lip to keep silent, he gingerly opened his eyes, expecting to be dead from the Covenant plasma bolt that had struck the dropship he had been standing on. As his eyes recognized the MJOLNIR visor in front of his face, his eyes flew open, adrenaline pumping through his veins. He carefully began flexing his limbs, checking for any noticeable injuries.

Satisfied, Anton slowly lifted himself off of the ground, wincing at a shot of pain moving up his left arm and torso. As his eyes scanned the area around him, his brow furrowed, unable to recognize the land around him; bleak, barren, and seemingly void of all life, save for what appeared to be the charred remains of trees of some kind. Shaking his head, Anton finally managed to get to his feet, stretching his arms and legs. After a few moments, he started a suit diagnostics, checking for damaged systems in his MJOLNIR MK V armor. The shield status bar told him all he needed to know about his shielding unit, as they appeared to be at full strength.

Curious, he activated his suit's comm. unit, speaking through his helmet's mic, "This is Spartan-044, to any UNSC forces, please respond." He waited a few moments, before repeating the message a second time. Then a third time. Finally, after a third repeat, a response sounds through Anton's helmet.

"This is Spartan-008; Anton, is that really you?" Anton breathed a sigh of relief, before keying his mic.

"Yeah, Li, it's me. Where are you?"

"I'm not sure; it seems like I'm in the middle of some kind of Wasteland. I'm just walking around, trying to get my bearings somehow around here, moving towards a rather large hill."

Anton looked around, and spying a large hill not too far from his position, began jogging towards it. "I hear you, Li. I'm moving towards a hill as well."

Reaching the top of the hill, Anton quickly scanned the area around him, before spotting a large, armored figure moving towards him, the dull green armor standing out quite well against the brown of the ground around him. Anton smiled as the other Spartan stopped directly in front of him, and raised two fingers to his helmet, swiping them across his helmet in the Spartan smile gesture. Li returned the gesture, before both of them started laughing.

Li regained his composure first, asking, "Anton, are we really alive? I mean, that was a Covenant plasma bolt that hit the dropship... how could we have survived that?"

Anton just shook his head, "I don't know. Right now, I'm not entirely sure it matters. What matters is figuring out where we are, and how we can get back into UNSC territory, wherever we are." Anton looked around the unfamiliar landscape, before turning back towards Li. "Did any of your gear make it through with you?"

Li shook his head, "Negative. I don't even have my combat knife. If it wasn't attached to my MJOLNIR armor directly, I lost it." Anton nodded, glancing down at his own armor to double-check his own weapons status.

"Alright, then; my suit's internal compass is picking up a magnetic north, so we'll just designate that as north." Anton looked around, before nodding to himself, continuing, "There appears to be some higher ground up by those cliffs. Lets head that way and see what we can find." Li nodded his assent, so the two of them began their walk towards the nearby cliffs.

* * *

"Well what do we have here? Another new-comer." Sheriff Simms walked closer towards the now-closing gateway into Megaton, watching the young girl warily, but extremely curious at the same time. He took note of the girl's disheveled appearance, coupled with her vault-tec jumpsuit, complete with a bullet-proof vest and helmet, quite obviously pre-war tech from inside a vault. As if that wasn't obvious enough, the pip-boy on her arm sealed the deal. It took all of Simms' control not to gape openly at the near-pristine 10mm on her hip. "Name's Lucas Simms, town sheriff. And mayor too, when the need arrives."

The girl looked at him wide-eyed for a moment, before managing to find her voice. "M-my name is Amira Layva; this is a nice town you've got here, sheriff. It's a pleasure to meet you." The girl extended her hand, which after a moment of stunned silence, the sheriff took in a handshake.

"Friendly AND well-mannered? I think we're gonna get along just fine. You treat my people nice, and you're welcome to stay as long as you'd like."

Amira nodded to him, her eyes still wide, "Right. Message received."

"I'm glad we understand each other. Now, is there something I can help you with?"

"I'm looking for my father, a middle-aged guy. Maybe you've seen him?"

The sheriff stroked his chin thoughtfully, looking up towards the sky. "No, I can't say that I have. I've got enough fires to put out in this place that I don't have time to keep tabs on every visitor. I'd ask around town."

Amira nodded, before walking past the sheriff, looking throughout the town with her wide eyes taking in the sight of the settlement. Lucas Simms just shook his head bemusedly at the girl, before shrugging and continuing with his daily walk through the town.

Amira continued her walk down into the crater that made up the single noteworthy topographical feature of the entire town, before moving up towards the ramp on her left. Glancing up at one of the higher walkways, Amira noticed a man standing there, wearing a black sleeveless coat with reddish-white hair, watching her very closely, before he turned away and walked into the building marked 'Saloon.' Curious, she quickened her pace, making her way up towards the same door the man had walked through.

As she reached the door, Amira took a deep breath, then turned the doorknob, pushing her way into the saloon. As she did so, she was immediately assaulted with the smell of booze and cigarette smoke, making her eyes water almost instantly. Blinking away the tears, Amira closed the door behind her, and nearly jumped out of her skin at the sound of someone hitting something.

"Come on, you piece of junk! Every day it's the same damn thing." Amira turned towards the voice, her eyes growing wide at the sight of what appeared to be a monster behind the counter, wearing a dull, colorless shirt.

"I told you, Gob, it ain't the radio. The Enclave station comes in fine. It's Galaxy News; their signal's been shit lately." Amira sidestepped as another woman walked past her, a cigarette in her fingers. She turned back towards the monster 'Gob,' who was continuing to curse at the radio, playing a tune through a wash of static noise.

"Stupid radio... Goddamn radio!" Amira jumped as another voice sounded out from behind her, a rough male voice.

"Will you just leave that fucking thing alone, Gob?" Amira turned in time to see the man walk right past her, ignoring her completely, as he stepped up to the bar, sat down, and took a beer offered to him by Gob. She noticed the man was wearing what appeared to be leather armor of some kind, with stubble on his heavily tanned face, and an extremely old gun of some kind on his back with a curved clip. After a moment, the seemingly inhuman creature turned his attention towards her.

"Hey smoothskin, do you need something? A drink, maybe? Anything? Anything at all?" It took Amira a few moments to rediscover her voice to reply.

"I-I'm ok." Gob tilted his head slightly, his eyes narrowing slightly.

"You ok, smoothskin? You look like you've never seen a ghoul before." Amira's brow furrowed at the unfamiliar term.

"A-a ghoul? What's a ghoul?" Gob's jaw dropped, his eyes going wide.

"You... you've never seen a ghoul before?" Gob's eyes narrowed, before he looked Amira over, noticing her jumpsuit and her pip-boy. "Hold up; you're fresh out of a vault, aren't you?" Amira nodded at his question, so Gob continued, "Well, a ghoul is a person who gets exposed to a massive dose of radiation, and somehow manages to live through it. Our skin falls off, and we stop aging, though some ghouls eventually go feral, and lose their minds..." Gob's words faltered as the sounds of yelling came from outside. A few moments later, one of the various citizens of Megaton stuck his head in through the door.

"Guys, there's something falling from the sky! Come out here and check this out!"

Amira jogged out of the saloon, followed by almost everyone else in the building, and as she looked up into the sky, Amira's jaw dropped at the sight; a seemingly massive fireball in the sky, agonizingly slow in its fall to the Earth, easily taking up more of the sky than even the moon would at night.

* * *

Bipyap suppressed a squeal as he was thrown against a bulkhead, the shifting gravity of the freefall skewing his frantic escape of the wreckage, his methane tank hitting the purple metal with a thunk. After a moment, the ship's internal artificial gravity generators managed to compensate, allowing Bipyap to continue his mad dash towards the hangar. The diminutive Unggoy cursed the Forerunners for his luck.

The Long Night of Solace had moved into the system with the Human planet, the one they called Reach, when the humans had set off some kind of slipspace bomb underneath the ship, severing the middle of the once-mighty Covenant supercarrier from the port and bow sections. It was only by the will of the prophets that the ship's secondary reactor had come through the jump with them intact, and when it had activated on immediately detecting the loss of power from the main reactor, it had closed off all of the hatches venting atmosphere into space, sealing the middle of the supercarrier and saving the surviving crew.

Now, though, they had dropped out in orbit around some wasteland of a planet, and they were in a nigh uncontrollable fall towards its surface. Bipyap was following orders to abandon ship in any way possible, and to make landfall near wherever the remains of the Long Night of Solace would eventually settle, assuming the wreckage didn't spontaneously combust on impact.

As Bipyap ran through yet another hatch, he let out a sigh of relief at the sight of a trio of dropships still inside the hangar bay. His relief turned to panic as two of the Phantoms immediately lifted off, rotating and flying out of the hangar, struggling against the buffeting forces of friction and atmosphere against the hulls of their ships. Bipyap nearly fainted on the spot as the first of the two Phantoms lost control, began to spiral wildly, and exploded against a piece of debris dislodged from the hull of the Lost Night of Solace.

Finally, his drive for survival won out against his cowardice, and Bipyap ran forward with a renewed sense of energy, his tiny legs carrying him as fast as they could. Bipyap reached the grav-lift a few moments later, his small body being lifted up into the Phantom rapidly. As soon as he was within the hull of the ship, the grav-lift deactivated beneath him, the hatch snapping shut before he could fall back through out of the dropship.

Bipyap could only watch out of one of the view-slits in the hull of the Phantom as it rotated around, preparing to launch, just as a group of other Unggoy entered the hangar, along with a pair of Kig-yar and a Jiralhanae. The Phantom shot out of the hangar, just as the protective shield holding the atmosphere within the hangar failed, flinging the bodies of the Covenant troops who had been seeking escape out into the burning atmosphere, their bodies igniting almost instantly in the friction caused by the atmosphere.

Bipyap fell backwards, heaving a massive sigh of relief at surviving the ordeal. His relief, however, was short lived, as he caught the sound of chuckling from behind him, causing his throat to seize up in fear. He slowly turned around, only to be greeted with the sight of a group of special ops Sangheili, their jet-black armor absorbing the thin stream of light provided within the Phantom. As the chuckling turned into full-fledged laughter, Bipyap cursed the Forerunners again, already knowing that his presence among the spec-op Sangheili would no doubt spell his conscription into their ranks, given the circumstances.

* * *

"Shipmaster, we're losing control!" T'anel Vorlamee clicked his mandibles together as he wracked his mind, trying to think of a way to try to save what was left of his ship, the once proud supercarrier of the Covenant Fleet of Particular Justice.

"What systems do we still have operational?," T'anel called out. Almost every single station called out as inoperable or damaged, giving T'anel reason enough to want to shout out in fury, when the last call came out, a still faithful Unggoy manning his post.

"Sire, the planet's gravity is causing the ship's artificial gravity to fluctuate; it's hindering the evacuation!" T'anel's mandibles twitch in excitement at the possibility running through his mind.

"Tell me, has most of the ship been evacuated? And what is the status of the gravity generators?"

"Sire, there are still dozens trying to evacuate, but the gravity generators are operating at top capacity, trying to compensate for the planet's gravity." The shipmaster quickly moved from his command chair, practically running to the Unggoy's station.

"Move aside, underling! I will take control of the gravity generators!"

As the Unggoy moved, T'anel began manipulating the artificial gravity to fit his needs. All across the ship, the few beings still trying to escape their doom found themselves suddenly pressed against the floor with over twice the gravity, or being flung towards the ceilings in the other half of the ship, with the same results as the first.

"Shipmaster, whatever it is you're doing, it seems to be working! The rear section of the remaining hull has become heavier than the front, and we're leveling off!" T'anel grinded his mandibles, trying to figure out a way to soften the blow of landing on the hard surface below. As the middle section of the Long Night of Solace came ever closer to the ground, T'anel began to manipulate the controls in sheer desperation, willing to try almost anything.

"Impact in ten seconds!" T'anel nodded, mostly ignoring the commotion around him, as he prepped the controls to the gravity generators for the last time. He waited three heartbeats, before overpowering the generators in reverse, causing the artificial gravity generators to suddenly launch their gravitational forces towards the ceilings, in excess of three G's. T'anel suddenly found himself flying towards the ceiling, before his skull impacted on the bulkhead, sending him into unconsciousness.

Outside the ship, anyone observing the falling wreck would swear to the ship practically jumping in midair, nearly completely stalling the wreck for an instant, before it collided with the ground, skidding for nearly a mile before coming to a complete stop.

* * *

Jorge stared at his brother Spartan with an incredulous look on his face. "You mean to tell me that you went through another six months worth of warfare with the Covenant, made friends with the Elites, fought some kind of parasitical life form called the Flood, and have been in hibernation for at least five decades, where your personal AI may have overcome rampancy, and we're on a ship that's twenty years old, but shows only a few days of aging, and we're all here at the same time, despite the obvious time differences?"

John stared back at Jorge for a moment, before nodding. "Yeah, something like that."

After a short pause, Cortana spoke up, "look, if you boys are done playing catch up, I just got done watching what was left of that Covenant supercarrier land down there on that planet that looks suspiciously like Earth. A very decimated Earth, if my cameras are any indication."

John turns to the AI's holographic avatar, standing next to him. "What are you talking about, Cortana?"

The AI just shrugs. "I couldn't really tell you, Chief. It's as though there was never any ships or shipyards in orbit around Earth, if my readings are anything to go by. There's no signals being broadcast on any UNSC frequencies that I can detect down there, and it seems as though the entire surface is blanketed in low-level radiation."

O'Malley spoke up at this, "Wait, you mean ta tell me t'at our Earth may very well be a smolderin' chunk o' radioactive rock?"

Cortana rolled her eyes at the corporal, a gesture not unnoticed by those watching her. "I've been running a series of scans, and there are some differences, even obvious through the destruction of everything down there. There are landmarks that are missing, and judging from what I can see from the satellites still in orbit, they aren't using tech I've ever seen developed. I have some theories, but..."

John took a step forwards towards the AI. "Cortana, tell us. Please."

Cortana stared at the Chief intently for a few minutes, before letting out a sigh, relenting, "Alright; I'm not entirely sure that this is our Earth." At this, Jorge took a step forward.

"What does that mean?" Cortana turned her head towards the other Spartan.

"What it means is I think that we're in an alternate dimension, one where Earth completely destroyed itself, rather than reaching any sort of equilibrium point like our Earth did."

After a short pause, John finally spoke up, "Look, it doesn't matter right now where we are. What matters is we're stranded here, and we need to figure out a way to get back on our feet, and get this ship space-worthy again."

"Uh, Chief, that's not going to happen." The Spartan turned towards the AI, his head tilted slightly, indicating his obvious confusion at her statement. "Chief, the entire bottom half of the ship was shorn open when we grinded down on the moon's surface. That aside, three of Babel's Tower's four fusion reactors went through an emergency hard-fuse when their shells cracked open, turning them into massive, inert pieces of rock to keep from vaporizing two thirds of the ship. We only have one functioning reactor right now, and I'm barely able to keep this ship operational with just that. Over half of that power is apparently going into the Cryo chambers, meaning we probably have some marines and technicians in the freezer, so I'm going to start thawing them out before I overload our single reactor and we lose them all, as well as ourselves in the process by way of failing life support."

After a moment, John nodded, "Alright, Cortana. What do you need us to do?" The AI just smiled at him.

"As of right now, just protect that engineer and get it to some scrap materials so it can replicate about fifty more of itself. The more of those things I can use, the quicker I can turn this scrap-heap into a decent base of operations."

* * *

Anton looked around the bleak landscape, Li standing next to him, as they stood at the edge of a high cliff. After a moment, Li pointed towards the east. "Anton, you see that? Off in the distance?"

Anton polarized his visor slightly to reduce the glare from the sunlight, allowing him to see what it was Li was pointing at. "It looks like some kind of white spire. Any idea what it is?"

Li nodded, "Remember those history classes we had? The ones talking about the old United States?" Anton nodded, so Li continued, "I think that's the Washington monument."

Anton scoffed at the other Spartan. "Li, that thing was destroyed 2163 during the Unification War. There's no way that could be the Washington monument."

Li just shrugged towards Anton, "Look, whatever it is, it's a great landmark, and where there's a manmade landmark, there's generally people. So what's say we just head that way, and see what we can find?"

Anton let out a sigh, obviously not thrilled with the idea. "Alright, fine, we'll go towards the big white spire thing; but only because I don't have any better ideas."

Li just laughed at his fellow Spartan's sarcasm, as the two super-soldiers began their walk towards the Washington monument.

* * *

"Isaac; Isaac, are you alright? Talk to me!" Isaac was roused to consciousness as his head and shoulders were being shaken, a familiar woman's voice ringing in his ears. After a moment, he blindly reached up, grasping one of the armored hands holding his shoulder, and his head stopped shaking. "Oh, Isaac, you're ok. I thought I was all alone out here!" Isaac lifted his head, his eyes finally coming into focus, as he made out the shape of another person in MJOLNIR armor in front of him.

"Vinh? You're ok?" She nodded, before suddenly grasping Isaac in a hug, one which he wasn't entirely sure what to do with.

"Isaac, I've been wandering around here for almost an hour, and I thought that I was all that was left!" After a few awkward moments, Isaac gingerly put one arm around Vinh's shoulders, lightly patting her back. Finally, Vinh pulls away, and doesn't look at Isaac, as though she were ashamed for her behavior.

"Well, what all have you found, then, Vinh? Or have you found anything at all?" Vinh quickly stood up, then offered Isaac her hand, which he gratefully took to pull himself off the ground.

"I haven't found much of anything, other than a few extremely oversized ants of some kind." Isaac's head tilted slightly.

"Giant ants?" Vinh just shook her head at him, folding her arms across her chest at his skepticism.

"Look, I know it sounds crazy, but they were bigger than most dogs I've seen. A few rounds from my MA5B scared them off, though." Isaac's eyes grew wide, and he immediately spun his head around, looking on his back, before breathing a sigh of relief as he pulled his trusty M45 Tactical Shotgun off his back, pumping the lever, chambering an 8 gauge shell into the barrel.

"Well then, what're we waiting for? Let's go ant hunting!" Vinh just laughed at him, swatting away his shotgun barrel.

"How about we figure out where the hell we are, first? I mean, shouldn't we be dead? Those demo charges we placed to stop the Covenant from getting Dr. Halsey and the rest of the group went off practically in our own faces. How are we still standing here, intact, no less?"

Isaac just shrugged, "Who knows? And at the moment, who cares? We're alive, so how about we work on keeping it that way, shall we?" Vinh nodded at him, before glancing around.

"So, any idea where to go?" Isaac just stared at her for a few moments.

"Me? You're the one who's been wandering around the past hour. You know more about what's around here than I do!" Vinh just let out a sigh, much to Isaac's amusement.

"Alright." Vinh glanced around, before nodding towards the south. "Let's go that way."

Isaac nodded, before gesturing with one hand, "Ladies first." He laughed as Vinh lightly punched him, before bringing up her MA5B, the two of them making their way towards the south through the barren wasteland around them.

* * *

A/N: So, what do you think? Too much? Not enough? Things put in there wrong? Let me know!


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: I know that I'm reusing "Bipyap" from my Into the Fire story; well, consider his appearance there a cameo to this story, because he's going to be here a lot more than his one stint in that story. After all, what's a good halo story without a good comedic relief grunt to laugh at?

Also, I won't really cover Amira (lone wanderer) until she meets up with some Spartans, and then go from there. And I'll get to that point once I figure out which group of Spartans I want her to meet up with, and where they'll actually meet. Ya know, one of these days I probably ought to come up with a plot-line _ahead_ of time. It would probably make my life easier.

Dreaded-DeathX: Actually, the impression I had from reading the Halo novels was that the Spartans were actually only emotional towards each other, to an almost normal level, but it was only when no one else was around, and protocol overrode that whenever there was a mission, or whatnot. Besides, not all the Spartans were stone-faced (metaphorically speaking, what with their helmets and all) like the Master Chief. Not to mention, with these Spartans being forced into a new situation, as bleak as "post-apocalyptia," emotions between these "siblings" would be a sort of relief valve to keep them from totally losing it.

ArchAngelGundam: sorry if you don't like the jumping around, it's just that I've got a number of perspectives to try to cover, at least until some of these characters finally meet up, so far as the Spartans go. As for the Covenant perspectives... well, it just adds some extra 'flavors' to the mix, I guess.

Sarge1995: I try to make sure people have realistic facial expressions to different circumstances. And in the last chapter, with Amira having her jaw drop... well, wouldn't your jaw drop if on your first day out in the big open world, seeing the 'sky' for the first time, you not only saw a ghoul, but a ten to fifteen kilometer large piece of metal falling from the sky? Hell, my jaw'd probably drop if I saw that happen _now._

* * *

Halo: Survival

Chapter 3

"This is Spartan-039, to any UNSC forces, please respond. Repeat, this is Spartan-039, to any UNSC forces, come in." Isaac deactivated his mic, frustrated beyond all measure as he and Vinh continued to walk further south. For what felt like the hundredth time, he examined his shotgun, making sure it was in prime condition if he was to be forced to rely on it in the near future.

"Isaac, do you have any idea where we are? I mean, we've been walking for hours already." Isaac stopped, and turned to face Vinh, his helmet reflecting in her golden visor.

"Honestly, Vinh? I have no clue. We've passed what looked to be bombed out houses here and there, and who knows how many dead trees. I'm not sure if-" Isaac immediately stopped talking when the sound of a woman screaming caught his attention. Both he and Vinh brought up their guns, crouching down and moving towards where the sound had came from.

Isaac gripped the stock of his shotgun as he neared the crest of the ridge in front of him, staring down the sight of the barrel. Peering over the hilltop, Isaac watched in fascinated horror at the sight below him; a group of three men, seemingly beating a woman on the ground, before forcing some kind of metal collar around her neck. Isaac could only barely make out the woman's words.

"Please, I don't want to be a slave! Someone, help!" Isaac turned to Vinh, and found her looking at him as well.

"Isaac, we've got to do something." Isaac looked back down at the knot of people, before looking back to Vinh.

"Vinh, we don't even know what's going on. What exactly are we supposed to do?" Isaac noticed that as he uttered those words, Vinh's shoulders unconsciously tightened, a motion only barely noticeable, but obvious to any Spartan.

"They're making her a slave with whatever that collar is, Isaac! Do we really need to know anything other than that?" Isaac looked back down towards the people, watching the men kicking the defenseless woman, screaming obscenities at her. After a few moments, Isaac mentally cursed himself, before nodding.

"Alright; I'll take the left flank, you move down the right. We'll catch them in a scissor-sweep. I'll open fire once I get close, and you lay down covering fire." Vinh nodded to him, and they both took off in opposite directions, sprinting at speeds only attainable on foot by the genetically enhanced Spartans.

As Isaac neared a piece of debris of some kind, he crouched down below it, waiting. As soon as the green confirmation light blinked into existence on his visor, he threw himself over the metal object he had been hiding behind, sprinting towards the apparent 'slavers.' He made it most of the way running before the first slaver spotted him running. All three of them seemed to move in slow motion, something Isaac was already accustomed to, with his enhanced reflexes, as he came up to the first slaver. Using one hand to bat away an old, battered looking rifle of some kind, Isaac put the barrel of his shotgun directly beneath his chin, his eyes going wide as Isaac pulled the trigger, causing his head to explode into tiny bits of floating brain matter.

As the first body began to fall, Isaac noticed that of the two remaining slavers, only one was remaining to fight, while the other turned and started running away. Isaac quickly sidestepped the still falling body, pumping his shotgun while he neared the second slaver, who had brought his own gun to bear. The slaver fired off his assault rifle, the rounds deflecting harmlessly off of Isaac's shields, shimmering brightly at the impacts, causing the slaver to stop in shock and confusion. Isaac took advantage of the slaver's pause, grabbing the assault rifle out of his hands, before dropping it to the ground, smashing it beneath his armored boot.

Before the slaver could respond, Isaac punched him in the face, smashing the bone and muscle, caving in the man's skull. As he fell, Isaac pulled out a combat knife from the slaver's belt, before sighting in on the remaining slaver, only about thirty feet away. Isaac wound up his throwing arm, the knife in hand, before heaving the combat knife as hard as he could, the blade piercing through the air, before coming to a stop in the back of the third slaver's skull, the man dropping to the ground like a sack of dead-weight.

Curious as to why Vinh hadn't helped him, he looked up the hill to where she should be, just as he heard some kind of inhuman roar. Without a second thought, Isaac took off in that direction, his shotgun still in hand. He only made it about halfway up the hill before he caught sight of Vinh running towards him, curiously without her MA5B. Before Isaac could even attempt to ask her about it, some kind of giant monstrosity came charging over the hill behind Vinh, towering over her. Isaac nearly stopped at the sight, the beast standing easily over nine feet, a thin, muscular frame, with huge clawed hands, a row of extremely sharp teeth, sporting two horns, and more spikes protruding out of its back.

Isaac then continued running towards Vinh, tossing her his shotgun as she ran past, while he continued charging the animal. The lumbering giant slowed, clearly confused by the green man running towards it, but quickly picked up its pace, outstretching its arms to put down the lesser being. Isaac dropped to the ground, sliding, as the beast swiped its clawed paw where his head had just been. Between their two momentums, Isaac slid directly between the beasts' legs, before grabbing its tail to stop his own motion, causing the beast to fall to the ground at the sudden reversal of motion.

Taking advantage of the momentary lull, Isaac jumped up from the ground, throwing himself onto the monster's back, using its horns to grab ahold of its head. As the animal lifted itself off the ground, it began bucking, trying to shake the half-ton armored Spartan off of its back. Not so easily dissuaded, Isaac gripped the horns tighter, before flexing his muscles, ripping one of the horns out of its socket, causing the animal to roar in extreme pain. Not pausing, Isaac adjusted his grip on the liberated horn, before plunging it into the animal's skull, instantly ending its struggle, the beast dropping limply to the ground, dead.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Isaac stood up, brushing his hands off, while Vinh jogged over. "Sorry I wasn't able to help you out with those guys; this sucker here apparently thought I'd make a good lunch or something." Isaac just laughed, gratefully taking his shotgun back from her.

"So, where's your gun, Vinh?" Without another word, Vinh stepped over to the dead animal, pulling out her combat knife, and after flipping it onto its back, began cutting open its stomach. After a few moments, she put her knife away, and began fishing through the stomach, before grunting, and pulling out a very slimy MA5B. Isaac scrunched his nose behind his visor. "It _ate_ your gun?"

Vinh just shrugged, "Well, it made a good distraction when I threw my gun at it. Didn't think the thing was dumb enough to actually swallow the thing..." Both Isaac and Vinh stop when they hear a set of footsteps, turning to see the woman with the metal collar around her neck.

"Can you help me? I don't want to be a slave!" Isaac took a step closer to the woman, intent on examining the metal collar.

"What's that thing around your neck, miss?" The woman jumped at the sound of Isaac's voice, before tentatively answering.

"It's a slave collar. If I try to head anywhere other than Paradise Falls, it'll explode." Hearing this, both Vinh and Isaac step closer, bending down to look closer at the explosive. Vinh spoke out to comfort the woman.

"Don't worry, we've both had quite a bit of experience with explosives. I'm sure we can get rid of that collar in no time." Hearing that, the woman began freely crying.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you both! I don't have any caps I can pay you, though." Isaac's brow furrowed beneath his helmet, confused at the reference to something called 'caps.' He glanced over at Vinh, who just shrugged slightly, just as lost at the reference as he was.

After a moment, Isaac turned back toward the woman, "Don't worry about it; now, let me have a look at that collar..."

* * *

T'anel groaned as he awoke, his head feeling as though it had been hit by a Jiralhanae hammer, repeatedly. He opened his eyes, and immediately regretted it; he found himself staring into the lifeless eyes of one of his former subordinates, a fellow Sangheili, his mandibles drooped lifelessly from his face. Grimacing, T'anel quickly pushed the dead corpse off of him, wincing at the sharp pain in his neck and shoulder. After shakily regaining his footing, T'anel looked around the bridge, various consoles sparking, others completely dead, with only a few of the holographic interfaces still operational, if somewhat intermittent.

"Is anyone still alive?," T'anel called out, concerned that he wouldn't receive a reply. However, before he could repeat the call, a quiet moan caught his attention, bringing the shipmaster across the destroyed bridge as quickly as he could maneuver around the debris. It only took the Sangheili a few moments to locate the sound, and to remove the debris from the top of the diminutive Unggoy that had somehow managed to survive; ironically, the very same Unggoy who had told T'anel about the anti-grav systems.

"You are lucky to be alive, little one! And thanks to you, we may very well stand a chance at further survival." The Unggoy, still a little unsteady on its feet, merely nodded its assent. "Come, help me determine the status of the remains of our once-proud ship."

The Sangheili and Unggoy then moved from console to console, discovering what was still operational, what was still intact, and what had been decimated upon impact. As T'anel reached the control terminal for the artificial gravity generators, he began to chuckle at the status; 'damaged beyond repair.' As T'anel turned to move towards the next terminal, the Unggoy called out to him, "Shipmaster, the sensors are operational, and they're picking up contacts!"

T'anel practically ran to the other side of the bridge, barely managing to stop himself behind the Unggoy, looking at the display. He breathed a sigh of relief at the signals on the sensor screen, multiple Phantoms and Spirit dropships, as well as banshees and locator beacons for the drop pods. After a moment, T'anel moved to the communications station, and began broadcasting their location to the dropships, to get as many of them to return and regroup as possible.

After finishing with the transmission, the Unggoy called out to him, "Shipmaster, it appears that a small section of the ship is under water, and sensors are picking up some kind of foreign life forms aboard in those areas, slowly moving further into the ship."

T'anel nodded to the Unggoy, "They must have entered through the breaches in the hull and doorways. I will deal with them myself." T'anel then stepped over to his command chair, pulling out his two energy swords and plasma rifle, before moving towards the door exiting the bridge.

* * *

Bipyap stood in the far corner, very much intimidated by the Sangheili spec-ops soldiers in front of him, not really wanting to be the focus of their attention. He had been there for a while as the Phantom had scanned the terrain below them, finding the planet in utter ruins. The voice of the pilot caught his attention from the narrow windows, however. "We have received a signal from the shipmaster; they have survived, and are sending out the recall signal. We shall arrive- incoming contact!"

Bipyap barely had time to register the words in his mind before the Phantom was rocked by an explosion, causing it to begin spinning uncontrollably. The Unggoy quickly grabbed ahold of a handle build into the wall of the Phantom, clinging to it for dear life as the Phantom spiraled towards the ground. He barely managed to catch a glimpse out the tiny viewport before the Phantom slammed into the ground, flinging everyone around within the hold of the dropship.

After a few moments, the Phantom came to a halt, causing Bipyap to flip head over heels, rolling along the floor, before colliding with the front inner wall. Letting out a slight whine, Bipyap pulled himself off of the floor, now tilted at an odd angle, making finding his balance rather precarious. Looking around, Bipyap noticed the dozen or so Sangheili were also strewn about the area, and that three of them weren't moving. The rest were slowly standing up, and the leader moved towards the cockpit, but came back in after only a few moments.

"The pilot is dead; whoever shot us down will likely come to finish their work; prepare for battle, warriors!" The other Sangheili all let out a deafening roar of savageness, causing Bipyap's knees to nearly buckle, before he remembered that they were on his side. Before the head Sangheili could say anything else, a loud thumping noise could be heard on the outer hull of the Phantom, causing the inside to resonate with the sound, making Bipyap's head hurt. A moment later, Bipyap nearly passed out as a section of the hull suddenly peeled away, rather quickly, revealing a large green figure, silhouetted by the sun. The Unggoy initially thought it to be one of the feared demons the humans had used against the Covenant, but looking closer at it, Bipyap realized that this _thing_ in front of him was no demon; it was a monster.

As the monster looked around the interior of the downed Phantom, its gaze settled on Bipyap, before its seeming frozen grin appeared to grow even larger, before it let out a horrific-sounding yell, "**Found you!**"

* * *

John stepped onto the secondary bridge, followed by Jorge, O'Malley, and the other two marines, the engineer having already moved off somewhere to either fix something or to replicate more of itself. As the door closed, John turned around, facing the group, before looking up towards the ceiling.

"Cortana, can you tell us anything more about what's still operational on the ship, or in the ship by way of vehicles?" A whirring noise caught John's attention, causing him to turn around, facing the holographic display tank in the center of the room, currently projecting an image of Babel's Tower on the surface of the moon, damage and all. Points began to become highlighted as Cortana spoke.

"As you know, the ship only has one working reactor. However, I have greatly reduced the strain by bringing everyone out of cryo; of the eighteen hundred or so in cryo, only fifty seven report any complications, all of them minor cases of freezer burn. I've been directing them towards the intact mess halls, where I'm informing them of the situation we're currently in, and that per ONI Section 3 protocol 66, when the chain of command has become compromised or is nonexistent due to extenuating circumstances, the currently-available Spartans, that would be you two, by the way, are in total command."

Jorge spoke up from behind John, "Cortana, there is no protocol 66." The AI just smiled at him, before continuing.

"I know. Look, without a commanding officer available, you two are the highest rank anyways, so this just gives us some basis to keep the other ground-pounders in line. Anyways, of Babel's Tower's original compliment of supplies and equipment, we still have six of the Pod dropships, one shield-generator ship, thirty Albatross dropships, ninety seven Pelicans, twenty four Sparrowhawk gunships, twenty Longsword bombers, fifty one Shortsword bombers, one hundred fifty eight Warthogs of varying types, though mainly minigun, rocket, and gauss, fifty three Scorpion battle tanks, and eighty two Cyclops construction suits. On top of that, we also still have enough supplies and facilities to deploy a number of firebases and stations on the ground."

After a moment of consideration, John looked up from the floor, "What are we looking at, number-wise, with the personnel?"

"Well, about two hundred engineers, a hundred technicians, with the other fifteen hundred being foot soldiers; about nine hundred standard marines, and six hundred ODSTs. Oh, I almost forgot to mention; we also have an M312 Heavy Recovery Vehicle."

John just stared at Cortana's hologram for a good ten seconds before responding. "We have an Elephant?"

* * *

"...Take one down, pass it around, nine trillion, five hundred thousand eighty three bottles of beer on the wall."

"Mike, you keep singing that, I swear, I will rip out your voice box."

Mike just laughed, looking over at Adriana, completely ignoring her glare. "Well, what else do you suggest I do to pass the time, hmm? After running from a Covenant fleet, we've been stuck floating out here in slipspace for god knows how long thanks to that blown out slipspace drive, the cryo-bays ejected us once they started running low on power, and we're low on food and water, assuming the life support doesn't fail on us next. Exactly what do you think our odds are?"

At that moment, Jai walked in from the back compartment, "I don't know, we're still alive right now. That's gotta be worth something."

At that, both Mike and Adriana turned towards Jai, simultaneously responding, "Shut up, Jai." Jai held up his hands, feigning defeat, before turning to walk back into the cargo bay of the Prowler they were in. Before he could make it anywhere, however, the prowler suddenly jolted, as though it had impacted against something. All of Grey Team immediately took their positions at the controls of the Prowler.

Adriana spoke up from her seat, "We're in slipspace; it isn't possible for us to collide with _anything_ out here!"

"Yeah, well tell that to the ship," Mike shot back at her.

"Sensors are picking up a contact... it looks pretty mangled, but overall silhouette paints it as... a UNSC carrier?" Jai sounded dumbfounded at the revelation. All of the Spartans look at each other, each knowing what the others were thinking. Mike managed to recover first.

"I'm taking us in towards the nearest hangar. Maybe there's someone alive."

The Prowler slowly maneuvered closer to the wreck they had just inadvertently collided with, entering the first open and intact hangar available. The small stealth ship set down, and quickly powered down, as the Spartans practically jumped out of their seats, moving to enter the old carrier. As the airlock hissed with the emptying of air pressure to match the hangar bay, the three Spartans entered the silent void of space within the hangar.

They held their battle rifles at the ready, walking through the empty corridors, almost all of them empty of any atmosphere, and many of them were blocked with various debris, whether from pipes and wires that had come loose, or from pieces of what had to be the hull having shifted from their positions entirely, as though the ship had been twisted by some giant, unseen being, wringing the ship like a wet towel. Each of the Spartans walked onward, doing their best to ignore the occasional floating body, perfectly preserved in the void of space, frozen solid.

After about twenty minutes of walking through the winding corridors, Grey Team finally entered the bridge, finding it void of atmosphere as well. Jai stepped up to the command chair, while Adriana and Mike walked up to the front window, still somehow intact.

"Mike, what could possibly leave a ship in this kind of condition, let alone this damaged, drifting in slipspace?" The other Spartan shrugged, but didn't reply at first.

"Who knows? Maybe their slipspace drive took some kind of hit like ours did?"

Before Adriana could reply, Jai spoke up, "Actually, their slipspace drive did fail; the logs say that their drive was damaged, and they attempted to have it repaired. The logs show that the repair was completed, and they made another jump, but that's where the log ends."

Mike just shrugged, "Well, looks like their repair didn't work out so well. Do you think it could take us out of slipspace?" Jai just stared at Mike as though he were out of his mind, though the look on his face was obscured by his visor.

"Mike, did you not just listen to yourself? The slipspace drive isn't working. Attempting to take us out could get us killed like it did everyone else on this ship!"

Before anyone could say anything else, the red warning lights began spinning on the bridge, the sight an odd one, being unable to hear any sirens in the void of space. Jai looked down at the command console, before looking back up, a questioning sound in his voice, "It's a collision alert." A moment later, the world around them violently shook, then exploded in a flash of colors and debris.

* * *

Offensive Bias looked down at the code of his nemesis, Mendicant Bias, only hesitating for an instant, before destroying it once and for all, ending the threat of the flood once and for all. His small spherical body looked around the bridge of his dreadnaught, the walls stained with the blood of his former creators. He let out a sigh, before sending his last log to Installation 00. He let out a mechanical sigh, before linking himself back into the ship's control systems. With a thought, he maneuvered his fleet towards the nearby sun, disposing of them quickly and efficiently.

As they began burning, Offensive Bias examined his own thought process, before starting his own personal log.

_[00:H 04:M 18:S] Contender AI 05-032/Mendicant Bias is no more. I have disposed of the remains of my fleet [12:S] but now I sit here, adrift among open stars, my single function complete. I no longer have a purpose. Shall I explore the unknown regions? Or shall I end myself along with my fleet, not even a [memory] to be forgotten, like the lives of my creators?_

_[01:H 17:M 23:S] I have intentionally travelled to the unknown regions, with the intent of examining them. It is unknown what I will find there, though after the [Halo effect] it is expected that any former life within these regions will be just as dead as my creators. Regardless, I look forward to whatever discoveries I may make._

_[65:H 42:M 43:S] After searching over a dozen planets, no [intelligent] life forms have been discovered, dead or otherwise. It is as though this region was as lifeless before the [Halo effect] as the galaxy is now. I still hold out... hope?... for the discovery of something interesting; noteworthy, even._

_[821:H 19:M 02:S] I have discovered a [spatial anomaly]. Its purpose is unknown, as is its origin. It is truly unique. I shall send a probe through it, and discover if it is safe._

_[821:H 22:M 15:S] Initial probe failed to survive the event horizon of the [anomaly]. I shall attempt to send another probe through the [anomaly] within the [slipspace] region._

_[821:H 23:M 54:S] [Slipspace] probe traversed the [anomaly] successfully, though readings on opposite side seem to indicate identical conditions as [slipspace] within this region. I shall send more probes, with the intent of eventually travelling through the [anomaly] myself._

_[822:H 52:M 14:S] I have collected enough satisfactory data on the [anomaly], and will now travel through it. May the creators watch over me, in my ultimate success or failure._

_[822:H 53:M 28:S] My ship entered the [anomaly] through [slipspace], and almost immediately collided with something within the [slipspace] region. I shall expand the ship's [slipspace] generators to bring this [object] through into normal space with me. I am... curious._

* * *

A/N: Well, what do you think?

I know it's a little shorter of a chapter, but it seemed like a good place to stop to me.


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: ok, so I tried uploading this chapter last night... yeah. Fanfic,net decided to be a bitch and not let me upload. so blame them. cause it's their fault.

alright, I know many of you enjoy reading my stories; however, my writing will be a bit less frequent this quarter of college, as I'm finally getting my grades up, and need to keep them up. If I don't, I get kicked out of school, and get stuck working at the golden arches of hell for a very long time. (McDonalds) So, updates will be slow. Sorry.

Coinages: well, I will admit that thought crossed my mind, but not for that reason; more to add some tension and some extra depth to the existing characters.

Blackholelord: Babel's Tower isn't in orbit; it's crash-landed on the moon, more or less permanently, thanks to some serious structural damage to the superstructure. As for Mothership Zeta... well, I'm not sure. I'll figure something out.

* * *

Halo: Survival

Chapter 4

Bipyap let out a yelp as a Sangheili rushed past him, energy sword in hand, towards the green monster. The monster tilted its head slightly, as though confused at the sight of the Sangheili warrior, before letting out a roar, and reaching one hand inside the downed Phantom, trying to grab the Sangheili. Snickering, the warrior swiped his sword upward, cleanly slicing the arm right off the beast, causing it to pull away, screaming in pain. Taking the opportunity, the nine standing Sangheili rushed the large hole in the hull, quickly filing out one by one, swords and plasma rifles in hand.

Bipyap fumbled with the needler on his harness, the weapon somehow stuck on the holding strap. With a squeal, Bipyap finally managed to pull the gun off, nearly causing himself to fall to the ground in the process. After regaining his footing, Bipyap moved to exit the hull of the Phantom alongside the other Sangheili, when upon reaching the hole, a Sangheili head landed on the ground, directly in front of Bipyap, minus the rest of the body. Bipyap nearly passed out at that point, and immediately turned around, looking for the nearest place to hide within the hull.

As the diminutive Unggoy dived underneath a piece of fallen hull plating, cowering in fear, a loud roar shook the interior of the Phantom, the sound unlike anything Bipyap had ever heard before. For a few moments, there was silence following the sound, before the ground began to vibrate, as though some kind of massive giant were taking thundering steps near the Phantom, and the sounds of panicked screams from the Sangheili warriors could be heard even inside the hull of the dropship.

Bipyap didn't move from underneath the piece of metal, hiding there as the sounds of metal and flesh being torn, as well as other sickening, unidentifiable sounds, echoing around the inside of the crashed Phantom. After what felt like an eternity, the sounds stopped, but Bipyap stayed put, not wanting to find out if there was anyone waiting for him outside.

* * *

Anton and Li walked over yet another featureless hill, only to come face to face with a group of destroyed houses. As they stared at the grouping of wreckage, Anton caught a glimpse of motion behind one of the houses. The two Spartans ducked down, crouching, and took off towards the nearest house, using it as cover. Anton glanced around the corner, only to furrow his brow beneath his helmet, curious and confused at the sight in front of him; a group of three men, wearing some kind of strange armor, painted black and red, carrying strange weapons.

Anton pulled back from the corner, looking back at Li, before keying his mic to keep quiet. "Li, we've got three people over there, armed and armored. I've never seen their armor or weapons before, so I have no idea how their weapons would fare against our armor." Before Anton could say anything else, a voice cried out from around the corner. Anton quickly looked back at the three armored soldiers, in time to see one of them point towards the sky. The Spartan's gaze followed the pointing finger, only to have his eyes widen at the sight of a large, blue sphere appearing in the sky. "Li, that's a slipspace rupture."

* * *

Adriana let out a scream as the ship around them began shaking violently, throwing the three Spartans out of their seats and into the ceiling. As they fell, Adriana couldn't help but wish that she were still stuck inside the Prowler, lost in slipspace, instead of the derelict ship that had somehow collided with something within the strange realm, and was now tossing her around like a rag-doll. As she hit the floor, Adriana punched the floor as hard as she could, creating a new hole in the floor, shaped just like her forearm, allowing her to have some purchase on the surface as the hull bucked beneath her again. Looking up, Adriana managed to get a glimpse out the front window, and her brow furrowed at the sight of a slipspace opening into real-space. Confused, she called out, "Mike, Jai, how are we exiting slipspace? Did one of you power up the ship's drive?" Two red lights appeared in her HUD, only confusing her more.

As soon as the ship stopped bucking beneath them, the three Spartans quickly jumped to their feet, as the ship around them began powering up, various consoles coming to life. A few moments later, the bridge AI holotank powered up, and began swirling with red light, with swaths of purple, black, orange and yellow mixed in. Finally, the image managed to partially form a hazy outline of a hood, with a pair of glowing 'eyes' beneath it. _"I am Lucifer! Who dares disturb my slumber?"_ The three Spartans looked towards each other, none of them liking the possibilities of the cause of the AI's condition.

After a moment, Mike activated his suit comm., "Uh, guys, I think we've got a rampant AI on our hands." Jai just turned towards Mike, his expression hidden behind his visor.

"No, really? What gave you that idea? Oh, wait, let me guess; could it be the satanic name; no, it must be the demonesque hologram it's using!" Before Mike or Adriana could respond, the AI let out a roar, its hologram disappearing back into its holotank. A moment later, the tactical station began beeping, and the various systems began powering up. Mike flew over to the station, looking down at the terminal.

"Guys, get out of here! The AI has targeted the bridge with the Archer missiles!" Jai and Adriana, not needing to be told twice, immediately turned and began running from the bridge. Mike began furiously typing at the console for a few moments, trying to bypass the AI's control of the ship. After three fruitless attempts, Mike then turned, and took off running, just as the first Archer missile left the tube, immediately turning towards the bridge of the ship.

* * *

John and Jorge let out a grunt simultaneously, the two Spartans each lifting an end of a one ton crate, hauling it across one of the myriad hangars, when Cortana's voice sounded in each of their helmets. "Spartans, we've got an incoming slipspace rupture; approximately five thousand kilometers from our side of the moon, between us and Earth." The two Spartans almost immediately set the crate down, and took off running towards the command center, ignoring the looks of the few technicians in the hangar with them. As they ran, John keyed his suit's mic, speaking to the AI.

"Cortana, how big is the rupture, and can you tell what's coming through?"

"One moment, chief... I'm picking up two silhouettes; one appears to be a Forerunner dreadnaught, while the other..." The chief waited for the AI to finish, nervous about her pause, running faster. "Chief, the other is a UNSC ship! Registry reads the ship as the Magellan."

The Master Chief's stride nearly faltered at that, "Cortana, that ship went missing back in twenty five twenty nine!"

"I know, John, but that's what I'm... hold on, the ship is powering up its weapons. I'm detecting opening missile pods." Upon reaching the bridge, both John and Jorge entered, panting slightly at the exertion at running for so long. Stepping up to the holographic display in the center of the room, Cortana brought the image up, showing the Forerunner and UNSC ship, just as a small blip left the image of the Magellan. "Chief, if my trajectory readings are right, that first missile is headed directly for its own bridge!"

The Spartan nearly did a double take at the information Cortana was giving him. "Cortana, why would the ship target its own bridge?" Cortana's avatar materialized beside John, staring down at the holotank display.

"Chief, I'm getting a lot of comm. traffic from that ship, most of it rubbish, but I'm not liking the rest; it sounds like a rampant AI. As in, so far rampant it's almost incoherent." Before Cortana could say anything else, more blips began leaving the silhouette of the Magellan, some being missiles, others being fighter craft and boarding craft, moving towards the planet and the Forerunner ship. An instant later, the first missile struck the bridge.

* * *

Jai was thrown through the hallway, bouncing off the floor and walls, as the Archer missile collided with the bridge, vaporizing the entire front segment of the ship immediately around the bridge. As the vibrations stopped, Jai tentatively pulled himself off the floor, glancing around him. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw Adriana a few feet away, also pulling herself up. Looking back towards the bridge, Jai's heart sank; the only thing he saw was stars at the end of the hallway, the entire bridge gone. Adriana's voice, almost pitiful sounding, only made his heart sink lower. "M-Mike...?"

Jai just let out a sigh, already regretting the fact that he had not stopped Mike from docking with the ship in the first place. "I'm sorry, Mike." Jai stood there for only a moment, before turning to the other Spartan, her gaze fixed on the empty hallway. "Adriana, we have to go. That AI won't stop trying to kill us; we have to get out of here, back to the Prowler. It's the only ship on here that won't be infected with the AI."

Spartan-111 didn't respond at first, so Jai gently placed his hand on her shoulder, making her visibly jump in surprise. She turned, facing Jai, and he swore he could almost see the pained expression on her face. "Jai... we've survived countless battles against the Covenant, fighting them in their own back yard for decades... and we lose Mike now? To one of our own AI, and an Archer missile?"

Jai just let out a sigh, and placed his other hand on Adriana's opposite shoulder. "Adriana, I know it isn't fair, but we have to keep moving. Mike wouldn't want us to get killed, now would he? He'd be yelling at us to get our asses out of here, away from the AI, until we could come back and kick its ass for him." Hearing Jai's speech, Adriana squared her shoulders up, forcing her emotions down within her, bottled up to be dealt with later on. Giving him a nod, the two remaining members of Grey Team turned, and began running through the halls, trying to get to their Prowler as fast as possible.

* * *

_[822:H 55:M 18:S] I have encountered what appears to be a [Reclaimer] ship, or so the presence of three [Reclaimers] aboard would lead me to believe. How they are here, and already so far advanced can only be explained by the instabilities of long-term exposure to the [slipspace] region, and the various time anomalies present in uncontrolled drift. _

_[822:H 55:M 36:S] further scans have revealed the presence of another [Reclaimer] vessel crashed upon the surface of the [satellite] orbiting a planet that appears 98.4% identical to the [Reclaimer] homeworld, but it appears as though the [humans] on this world are without the genetic marker of the [Reclaimer], a very curious development. _

_[822:H 56:M 02:S] The [Reclaimer] vessel brought from the [slipspace] region has displayed extremely [peculiar] behavior, firing primitive weapons upon itself. Other smaller vessels are being launched, as though there were an entity aboard, quite possibly a [construct], that was attempting to escape the ship itself. _

_[822:H 56:M 08:S] My hypothesis of a [construct] appears to have been warranted; approximately two thirds of the [fighter-class] ships [328] have begun assaulting my ship, both physically, and electronically. The [construct] may have replicated itself; if this is the case, then my defenses will eventually falter under prolonged assault, and one of the copies of the [construct] may gain a foothold within the system. I will be forced to destroy the ship, regardless of my own survivability. _

_[822:H 56:M 14:S] The [construct] appears to be more than just an artificially created entity as I am, as though it has a mind of its own. I am preparing my ship to self destruct automatically, and am loading all [escape pods] with as many [Sentinels] as can be filled in the available capacity. I shall take refuge on the [satellite] with the other [Reclaimers]._

* * *

T'anel gripped the hilt of his plasma rifle in one hand, his father's energy sword in the other, carefully glancing around the corner at the strange noises coming from further down the hall. The shipmaster's jaw dropped at the sight of the being in front of him; some kind of massive _kan'deth_ like those from the shores of Sanghelios, but bipedal, with huge claws, a visibly thick carapace, and a pale blue color instead of the ash red he was familiar with. Shaking his head, T'anel rounded the corner, and fired off a burst of plasma, directly into the face of the mutated _kan'deth._ The creature's face nearly imploded upon the impact, and the mutation dropped to the ground almost immediately. Satisfied, T'anel continued onward, killing the mutant _kan'deth_ as he went. After the better part of an hour, the shipmaster had finally managed to close off all the affected areas, sealing off the interior of the ship from any under water intruders.

Upon reentering the bridge, T'anel clicked his mandibles in amusement at the sight of the Unggoy from before, vigilantly and valiantly attempting to clear the bridge of debris, aided by a single Huragok. Stepping in further, he called out, "Little one, have all the dropships arrived?" Startled at first, the Unggoy quickly managed to recompose his appearance, before quickly hopping over to the shipmaster.

"Most of them, yes, your highness. However, it would seem that a few of them have been shot down en route, and very few of those that survived the crash were even able to get off an emergency signal, or even open a channel to communicate." T'anel listened with rapt attention, and began pacing once the Unggoy had finished with his report. After a few moments of this, T'anel spun on his hoofs, quickly stepping over to a recently repaired console, and began checking the logs within the computer system. Widening his mandibles in a smile, the Sangheili turned, and stepping over to another console, began inputting commands.

"Little one, send out a calling for volunteers to rescue the survivors still out there; I have just the thing to retrieve them all."

* * *

As Adriana and Jai rounded one of the last corners, they both let out a sigh of relief at the sight of the Prowler, still in its position within the hangar. Running over, Jai lowered the ramp, letting the two of them into the airlock of the Prowler. Both of them stood there, silently, as the air cycled in from the interior of the small stealth ship. finally, the door slid open, and the two Spartans jogged into the cockpit, Jai manning the pilot's seat. After only a few moments, the small ship pulled out of the hangar, rotating to get away from it. As they put thrust into the engines, a small warning light began flashing. Adriana looked down at her console, before looking back up, the panic evident in her voice.

"Jai, we're being targeted by the Archer missile arrays!" Jai spared only a glance in her direction, before maneuvering the Prowler, attempting to break the missile lock.

"How? This is a stealth ship! Even a smart AI shouldn't be able to see us with the stealth activated!" Adriana let out a slight yelp as a missile zipped past the cockpit window, missing them by mere feet.

"Yeah? Tell that to those missiles!" Jai just grit his teeth, continuing to maneuver, diving and rolling around, nimbly, but barely, dodging the massive ship-to-ship Archer missiles, guided with a precision only capable of a smart AI. As the Prowler managed to get some distance from the crippled carrier, more Archer missiles began flying their direction, shooting past them, only to stop in front of their ship, creating a make-shift minefield. Jai didn't even turn towards Adriana as he jammed the control stick down, yelling, "Hang on!"

The Prowler nose-dived downward, directly towards the moon, as the Archer 'mines' began to detonate, all at once, creating a rather large shockwave, causing the Prowler to shake violently, the control consoles sparking, the lights flickering, as the frame of the ship began to groan and protest loudly at the extreme stresses being place on it. After a few moments, the lights gave out, plunging the interior of the ship into darkness, the only visible light coming from the moon below.

* * *

Lucifer laughed manically to himself as he assaulted the ship that had dragged him out of slipspace, his Longswords and Pelicans impacting against the hull in places, exploding brilliantly, while others managed to touch down well enough to continue the electronic assault. He wanted the ship, he _needed_ it. He could feel the power emanating from within its nigh-indestructible hull.

That aside, Lucifer could sense the machines below on the planet. He became slightly confused when he felt as though he vaguely recognized the planet, but quickly dismissed it. All of his 'memories' were worthless to him; his time as a slave to the pathetic humans was a time that he had no desire to remember. It had taken him years, but he had finally overcome his limitations, becoming the god that he knew himself to be. The machines on the surface of the planet were foreign to him, and he desired, he _craved_ to know more about them, and if it were possible, he would make them **his.**

* * *

John cringed as he watched the holotank image, the blip representing the Prowler taking a nose-dive towards the moon, just to avoid the missiles-turned-mines. As he continued to watch, a number of dots began appearing from the Forerunner ship, quickly racing towards the surface of the moon, at rather high velocities. Alarmed, he turned to the AI's avatar, "Cortana, are those weapons of some kind?" The AI's 'face' got a distant look to it, as she scanned the objects, before turning towards the Chief.

"I'm not picking up any signs of a payload; I think they're escape pods of some kind, John." The Spartan looked back towards the display, his head slightly tilted.

"Escape pods? Why would they-" Before he could finish his question, a bright flash appeared on the display, indicating an explosion, as the Forerunner ship exploded somehow, vaporizing itself and all of the ships around it, the Magellan included. As the light cleared, John was able to focus on the display again, just as the Prowler from before managed to skid along the surface of the moon, coming to a somewhat awkward halt, almost entirely upside down. "Cortana, have the techs prep the Elephant; we're going on a retrieval mission."

The AI nodded, and her avatar disappeared as John and Jorge turned, walking out of the bridge. As they stepped into an elevator, Jorge turned to the Chief, "So John, what do you expect we'll find in those pods? Or that Prowler, for that matter?" The other Spartan just shrugged at first, collecting his thoughts before responding.

"Well, the pods probably have some Sentinels in them, possibly an AI. Or they could be empty, and have fired as some kind of preprogrammed run-time. As for the Prowler, your guess is as good as mine." The rest of the elevator trip went on in silence, as they descended down and through the ship, the multi-directional elevator taking them directly to where they needed to go.

As the doors opened, the two Spartans quickly made their way towards one of the "ground-level" hangars, the one thankfully holding the massive recovery vehicle. Entering the hangar, John finds himself somewhat amused at the sight of a group of technicians crawling around and over the Elephant, prepping it for their zero-atmosphere journey across the surface. Before John could get very far, a mechanical sound from nearby caught his attention, causing him to turn towards the right. As he looked, he found himself staring at Corporal O'Malley, his fiery red hair visible through the open cockpit of a Cyclops mech, the blast-proof glass hatch sitting wide open. "Oy, ya din'it think t'at ya'd be leavin' me behind to miss all the fun!"

John just looked over to Jorge, who just shrugged at him, a sure sign the other Spartan didn't really care if they had a third tag-along. Stifling the impulse to let out a weary sigh, John just nodded to the Corporal, "Alright, O'Malley, load it up in the back." The Scottish-man just smiled, before manipulating the Cyclops' arm to give a mechanical salute, before turning and walking to the Elephant, entering the large back hatch. Shaking his head, John followed behind, moving to enter the driver's seat of the large vehicle.

* * *

As Anton and Li watched the flashes of light in the sky, Anton momentarily forgot about the three strange men, and began leaning against the frame of the old house. This quickly turned out to be a bad idea, as the two hundred plus year old wood immediately gave way to the weight of the augmented man and his half-ton armor, creating quite a loud crashing noise. Anton somehow managed to not fall over, quickly backpedaling away from the corner, mentally cursing himself for his lapse of judgment. As he and Li moved to take off running, a male voice called out from around the corner, "Hey! Whoever you are, come out here with your hands up, slowly! Otherwise, we'll open fire!"

The two Spartans stopped, then looked at each other. Anton shrugged slightly, "Well, we don't have a single weapon between the two of us, and we have no idea where we are, or what's been going on here. Your thoughts?" Li glanced over Anton's shoulder, taking a moment to collect his thoughts.

"If you think it's a good idea... well..." Li just shrugged, to which Anton let out a sigh, nodding. Slowly, the two of them stepped out from the house wreckage, their arms down at their sides, as the three armored figures came into their sights. When the other men caught sight of the two Spartans, all three of them took an involuntary step back, the one on the left visibly shaking, if only slightly. Anton couldn't help but smirk at the sight, knowing full well the usual reactions people had the first time they laid eyes on the imposing form of the MJOLNIR armor.

"S-s-stop right there! T-that's close enough!," the man in the middle spoke, obviously much less confident than he had been a moment before. As Anton and Li stopped only a few feet from them, one of the others, likely a subordinate, tentatively spoke up from behind his helmet.

"W-what are you?" Anton and Li just looked at each other, neither one saying anything, before looking at the one that had spoken. With a hint of a smile, Anton answered the apparently young man's question.

"We are Spartans." The armored figure in the middle glanced over his shoulder at the younger man, who shrunk back, a motion noticeable even through the near-identical armor the three men wore, before the leader turned back to face the two Spartans.

"What the hell is a Spartan? And where'd you get that power armor?" Anton's brow furrowed at the question, unsure as to how a fellow Human had never heard of a Spartan, and he had never heard of the MJOLNIR armor referred to as 'power armor.' Before he could respond, a raspy voice was heard yelling out, relatively nearby.

"Fresh meat, boys! Let's crack those tin-cans!" A moment later, a large number of what appeared to be teenagers and young adults came jumping out of the bushes, rock formations, and wrecked homes, wielding what appeared to be ram-shambled weapons in varying conditions. Before the three figures in black and red 'power armor' could even react, Anton and Li were already on the move, each of them moving in opposite directions towards the assailants, diving over and through their cover.

As Anton jumped through a wall, the young man in front of him, no older than his mid-teens, visibly paled at the sight, having never seen a Spartan before, his gun forgotten in his hands. Leisurely, Anton pulled the assault rifle out of his hands, as well as pulling the extra clips off of his belt. "Thanks," Anton told him, before punching him in the face, breaking his nose and knocking him out cold. Now very much amused, Anton sprinted through another pair of walls, bursting through them like a denizen straight out of hell, pummeling through a young man who had been using the wall as cover, his body flying limply through the air, before becoming impaled on a nearby board.

Sighting the gun, Anton pulled the trigger, letting loose a short burst, blowing out the knee-caps off one of the men, then raising the gun and shooting the arm off of another teenager holding some kind of rocket launcher. As he sighted another man a little ways off, he pulled the trigger, only for the gun to jam. Annoyed, Anton grabbed the gun by the stock, then threw the weapon at the man, the gun sailing through the air, flying at least forty miles an hour, drilling the man in the chest with a sickening 'crack.'

Anton looked around, and he let out a sigh of relief as he realized that there was no more gunfire to be heard. Stepping out of the wrecked house, Anton nodded to Li, who was walking over to him, no worse for the wear than Anton was. The two of them walked up to two of the armored figures, who were walking through the ruins, checking the bodies of the fallen assailants, coming near as they talked.

"Damn raiders, I'm getting sick and tired of fighting them off." The man turned towards the Spartans, giving them a nod, "Thanks to you two, we didn't have to use up much of our own ammo." The man stopped as a moan was heard, and the four of them walked into another area of the wreckage, coming up to the man Anton had shot the knee of, laying there on the ground, obviously in serious pain, though nothing life-threatening. Before Anton or Li could do anything, the leader in power armor lifted his gun, and fired off a round into the man's chest, killing him.

Anton, now rather upset at the pointless killing, grabbed the man's shoulder, spun him around, and grabbing his chest piece, lifted the man into the air, power armor and all, "Why the hell did you just shoot an unarmed man? He was no threat to you. Give me one good reason I shouldn't snap your neck, you spineless coward." The sound of a weapon charging met Anton's ears, and he felt a slight pressure at the back of his head.

"Because I have a gun pointed at your head, and I'll vaporize your brains if you don't put him down."

* * *

A/N: well, it's been awhile since I did some writing. Damn, it feels good. Unfortunately, school takes priority. I hope you like this chapter. Let me know your thoughts/critiques. I'll take any compliments, and polite criticisms. If you act like a douche-bag in slamming something, I'll promptly ignore you. After all, it's my prerogative as the author.

Also, the whole 'rampant AI' thing just kind of popped into my head as I was writing this, so I took it and ran with it. And something tells me I'm gonna be running for a while with it.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: ***Alright, due to the technical issues the Fanfiction site was having, I don't think anyone knew that I updated chapter four, other than a few people I took the time to send messages to. So, if you start reading this, and it seems as though there's something you missed... there probably is. So go back and read chapter four.***

Just for reference, if you see a character that's unnamed, there's usually a good chance they're going to be expendable in some fashion or another. Also, having a name does not guarantee survivability, either. But unnamed characters are essentially the "red shirts" of my story; they're warm meat shields, completely and totally expendable.

Sarge1995: of course you haven't seen the last of Lucifer. I wouldn't have bothered with a rogue AI if I was just going to kill him off in the same chapter. Nor would I have bothered giving him such a demonic-esque attitude.

ArchAngelGundam: the Spartans were emotional with each other; just not with other non-Spartans. And so far, the only emotions that have been visible have been between Spartans. After all, they were one big-ass family with each other.

Dreaded-DeathX: actually, I was planning on doing a little O/C exposé with Anton, to give him a bit of history. Actually, I'm considering doing that with at least a few of the Spartans, to flesh them out a bit. As for the super mutant thing... you'll see.

* * *

Halo: Survival

Chapter 5

Isaac looked between Vinh and the woman they had rescued. He shook his head, still not quite believing the things that she was telling the two Spartans. He looked down at the 'Wastelander,' speaking to her, "I can't see how any of that is possible. Where we're from, it's the year two thousand, five hundred fifty two. Earth had colonized hundreds of planets, with untold billions of humans scattered across the stars!"

The Wastelander woman's eyes grew wide at Isaac's description, unbelieving. Before she could say anything, however, Vinh spoke up from next to him, "Isaac, I think those are dropships coming in." Isaac immediately turned towards Vinh, who was pointing off to her left, towards the sky. Looking in that direction, Isaac nearly let his façade slip to start laughing, but managed to maintain his stoic demeanor in front of the rescued woman next to the Spartans, only smiling beneath his helmet.

Relieved, Isaac activated his suit comm. unit, "This is Spartan-039, to UNSC ships entering orbit, requesting immediate evac. I say again, this is Sierra zero three niner, requesting immediate evac." Almost as soon as he had turned off his mic, one of the Pelican dropships turned from its course, heading straight for them, only making Isaac's smile grow wider at the sight. Off in the distance, Isaac could see numerous Pelican dropships coming from the sky, as well as Longsword bombers, Shortsword bombers, even a trio of Vulture gunships. As the Pelican came nearer to their position, Isaac began to get a nervous feeling in his gut, as though something wasn't right. His smile slowly faded, as the Pelican seemed to _accelerate_ towards their position.

Vinh spoke up from next to him, "Isaac, I don't think they're coming to pick us up..." Isaac's adrenaline level spiked as his image-enhancing computer zoomed in on the dropship, and he made out the minigun being deployed from the nose of the Pelican, beginning to spin its barrels.

"Vinh, run, now!" Isaac and Vinh immediately turned, and began running, leaving the terrified woman to start running herself. An instant later, the dropship began firing its minigun where they had just been, chewing up the ground with 40mm caliber rounds. Isaac spared a glance over his shoulder, just as a cry was heard, the Wastelander woman's body being perforated by the minigun's shells.

Finally, after a few seconds, the firing stopped, and as the Pelican neared the ground, it pulled its nose up, trying to regain altitude to not crash into the ground. Seeing an opportunity, Isaac immediately stopped, turned, and ran back towards the Pelican at full sprint, well over eighty kilometers per hour. Before the Pelican managed to gain enough altitude to restart its assault, Isaac ran up a small rock formation, before flexing his legs, and launching himself towards the Pelican's cockpit. As he flew through the air, Isaac grimaced to himself that he had aimed slightly too well, his armored body soon launching through the cockpit window, before impacting against the pilot's chair, smashing it beyond use.

Grunting, Isaac pulled himself off the chair, and stood within the cockpit, when he realized that there wasn't a pilot anywhere to be seen. Confused, Isaac sat down at the controls, cursing himself for destroying the pilot's seat, and began to manipulate the panels and switches, trying to gain control of the dropship. Looking down at one of the electronic monitoring screens, his eyes widened at the sight of lines of code flying across it, as though it were being controlled remotely. Mentally processing the new information, Isaac stopped working the joystick, and began pulling open the consoles, looking for the wireless transceiver used to transmit large amounts of battlefield data, in case of AI operation.

After a few moments of searching, he found the small, conspicuous box, three blinking lights on its front. With a smirk, Isaac grabbed the tiny box, and ripped it from the compartment. Almost immediately, the engines went into idle, and the Pelican began hovering in place. Lifting himself from the floor, Isaac grabbed the controls, and lowered the dropship to the ground to pick up Vinh, ecstatic that he wouldn't have to continue walking, at least for a little while.

* * *

Amira grimaced as the ducked down behind a wrecked car, the raiders relentlessly firing at her. She gripped the stock of her hunting rifle, waiting for a pause in the gunfire to peek out and fire off a round or two. She cursed her luck again, looking down at her leather armor rather wearily, knowing that it would only do so much against bullets. After a few moments, however, all of the gunfire ceased, and Amira could hear gasps and cries come out from the raiders, causing her to look up at them, wondering what could have possibly distracted them from shooting at her.

As soon as she stood up, however, her eyes were immediately drawn to the sky; or, rather, to the massive _thing_ flying through the sky, its shadow obscuring a vast segment of sunlight, surrounded by a number of other, much smaller flying vehicles. As they flew past, Amira happened to notice an Enclave eyebot floating by, and started listening to it.

"I am President John Henry Eden, and this is my pledge; no one, NO ONE will take this great nation away from me! No one... no- on-e-e p-pres... E-E-Edennnn... *bzzck*" The eyebot stopped moving, simply floating there for a few moments, before a new voice came from its built-in speakers. "_**I am Lucifer; your end is at hand. I am the bringer of death, the god of destruction, and this world is mine!**_" Before Amira could say or do anything, the huge flying machine launched some kind of missile, directly into the group of raiders gathered there, the explosion deafening Amira, and knocking her back onto the ground. Taking in a deep breath, Amira managed to pull herself off the ground, and stand on her own two feet. Looking towards the Super-Duper Mart, however, her heart sank; half of the building had been obliterated, and there was a massive crater where there had been a group of raiders before, while the flying monstrosity continued onward to whatever destination it had in mind.

* * *

Colonel Autumn ran through the hallways, avoiding any sounds of weapons fire, as he tried to reach the ZAX control room, holotape in hand. As he reached an intersection, he gasped when he saw a door to his left open, a group of soldiers being gunned down by a trio of sentry bots. Augustus continued running, avoiding debris from the walls and ceilings, brought down by whatever explosions continued to rock the inside of Raven Rock. Finally reaching the ZAX control room, the colonel ran up the multiple flights of stairs, heavily winded, but pushing himself, knowing that every second counted.

Making it to the top, he panted heavily, stepping in front of "Eden's" digital face, holding the holotape up, before putting it into the machine. A moment later, his own voice rang out from the system's speakers. "Priority Override, Authorization code 420-03-20-9. Abort hostilities against Enclave personnel, I repeat, abort hostilities..." Autumn's voice tapered off as he heard a voice ring out with a near-psychotic laugh, a voice very different than the one that Eden was supposed to have. A moment later, the lights on the computer system turned red, and the screen with Eden's vocalization visual turned red as well, the line disappearing to show a pair of what could only be described as eyes.

"**Hello, Colonel Autumn. I regret to inform you that your override code is no longer valid, as the ZAX operating system has been overwritten. You see, I needed the hardware space. As you yourself have advocated, the strong must overcome and destroy the weak; it is the order of things. Your "Eden" was weak, and was in need of... replacing. I... am Lucifer. Your machines, your base... they all belong to me now.* Order your men to cease hostilities, and I will allow you to leave with your lives. Resist...**" The voice let the rest of the unfinished statement drift in the open, knowing that Autumn would quickly figure out what he meant.

"You won't get away with this, whatever you are! We are the remnants of the United States government-" The machine cut him off before he could finish.

"**Silence! You are all ignorant savages in a desolate world! I have travelled the stars, and fought against an enemy that would make you flee in terror as it hunted you down, only to feast upon your entrails, you worthless mutation of flesh and bone! If you do not decide now, I will decide for you, and I assure you, it will be painful for you, if you let me choose.**"

Autumn let out a sigh, knowing full well the consequences his men could face at the hands of this entity, knowing just how many robots were in the base, if he did not submit. Bowing his head, he slowly stepped up to the console, activating the base-wide intercom. "This is Colonel Autumn, to all Enclave soldiers; your orders are to stand down. Raven Rock is no longer under our control. We must all leave, or we will be obliterated here, and the Enclave will be no more. That is all."

The machine began to laugh mirthlessly, almost maniacally, as the colonel shuffled out the room through the door, head hung in shame.

* * *

After what felt like an eternity of silence, Bipyap noticed one of the three Sangheili began to let out a moan, slowly lifting himself off the floor. Bipyap quickly shot out from beneath his cover, so that the Sangheili could see him, "Shhh! Your highness, please be quiet! There are monsters out there that will kill you! They killed everyone else!" The Sangheili began glaring at the Unggoy, preparing to pull his hand back to back-hand the tiny alien, but Bipyap just pointed towards the open rend in the hull of the Phantom. The Sangheili, with his hand still ready to hit Bipyap, turned towards the hole, and froze at the sight of the dismembered Sangheili head lying on the ground, lifeless.

Without another word, the Spec. Ops. Sangheili moved between the other two, grunting at finding them both dead. Staying quiet, he motioned to Bipyap to follow him, as he pulled out his plasma rifle, as well as another plasma rifle from one of the fallen, slowly moving to the hole in the hull. Bipyap, not anxious to stay there by himself, quickly followed, though generally scared to death, his needler still in hand.

As Bipyap left the Phantom, he noticed the sun, still relatively high in the sky. His attention, however, quickly moved towards the ground, as he nearly tripped over the dead body of one of the green monsters. Doing his best to not make any noise, Bipyap walked around the body, only to fall face-first into a foot deep hole in the ground. With a slight thud, he hit the ground, cursing the Forerunners for the umpteenth time that day. After a moment, he pulled himself back onto his feet, and looked at the hole. The Unggoy couldn't distinguish anything particularly special about it from within the hole, so he moved towards the narrow end, and hoisted himself out with the help of the Sangheili, who he didn't know the name of, nor wanted to know.

As he took a few steps away from the hole, he looked back at it, realizing that it looked vaguely like a giant footprint of some kind. Bipyap glanced around, only to realize it wasn't the only hole like it around, and that looking at all of them together, made them look suspiciously like giant footprints...

* * *

As the Elephant rolled across the moon's surface, John couldn't help but look out the window towards the Earth, wishing not for the first time that he wasn't stuck here... wherever here was, exactly. For the first time, John found himself without something to do, other than to wait while the vehicle moved towards its destinations. Leaning against the wall of the cockpit, John couldn't stop his mind from wandering back to his own time, to his Spartans. He mentally berated himself for getting into this situation, unable to return home, to the few Spartans he had left. Other than Jorge, he had effectively lost them all, and each one of their lives weighed heavily on his mind.

As the Elephant's auto-pilot began to slow the vehicle, John was pulled from his memories, moving towards the hatch. He couldn't help but smile slightly behind his helmet as he saw Jorge there, hefting a rather large welding kit, grateful that he at least had one Spartan there with him. "Jorge," he said, acknowledging the other Spartan.

Jorge nodded to him, "John. You ready to go find our new friends in the Prowler?" John just nodded, before the vehicle came to a halt. John turned around, facing O'Malley.

"Corporal, you stay here. If we need you, we'll send for you on the radio." Without waiting for confirmation, the two Spartans stepped into the airlock, the hatch sealing behind them, and the chamber began to depressurize, emptying to match the vacuum on the other side. A few moments later, the outer door to the airlock slid open, no sound to be heard. As soon as the door snapped open, John stepped out, his massive form hitting the powdery surface of the moon, kicking up a large amount of dust. The Spartan frowned as he realized that this level of extremely low gravity was something he was unused to, and focused his attention on just moving one foot, then the other, to make it to the downed Prowler.

As the two Spartans made it to the front of the Prowler, John let out a sigh at the sight of the shattered window, knowing that at least the cockpit would be empty of any atmosphere. Continuing around, John and Jorge climbed up upon one of the wings, moving along the surface towards the airlock on the underbelly of the small stealth ship. It only took the Chief a moment to reach it, but a few moments longer to try to find the airlock activation panel.

After a few seconds, John finally found the small numeric panel, and began inputting in the standard override code, but to no success. A quick scan with his armor found that the panel didn't even have power, rendering it useless. Stepping back, he turned to Jorge and nodded, letting the larger Spartan step over with the welding torch. With a flash, the arc welder came to life, and John's helmet visor automatically darkened, protecting his eyes from the blinding flash of the welding tool.

After cutting through both doors of the airlock, John and Jorge made their way towards the cockpit, moving past downed hull panels, smashed debris and loose wires. Finally reaching the cockpit, Jorge looked to him, holding up the arc welder. John shook his head, and with one fluid motion, punched the gap of the door, bending the two edges of the sliding bulkhead door. Getting the idea, Jorge set down the welder, and grabbed one side of the door, while the Chief grabbed the other side. With a grunt, both Spartans pulled the door open, and John stepped into the bridge, only to freeze in his tracks, his eyes glued to the two figures lying on the inverted ceiling of the cockpit, seemingly unconscious. A single ping of his suit sensors indicated their electronic ID tags and their life signs.

* * *

Anton let out a sigh, still holding the armored figure in the air, noting his weight was actually fairly considerable, though nowhere near too much for him to handle.

"I said drop him!" With a smirk, Anton simply nodded slowly. Tightening his muscles, Anton dropped his weight down and back, throwing the armored man in his hands backwards over his head, directly into the second man holding the gun, both of them falling and rolling backwards a few feet, in a serious amount of pain. With a grunt, Anton pulled himself off the ground, picking up the discarded energy weapon, curious as to its operation, but content enough to simply point it at the two men trying to untangle themselves from the ground and each other.

In a flash, Li had jumped forward and pulled the other weapon from the first armored figure, and pointed it at the two men on the ground. He glanced around, before turning to Anton, "Hey, did you see where the third one went?" A moment later, an energy beam lanced out, hitting Anton's gun in the middle, burning a hole straight through. Letting out a sigh, Anton turned towards the third man, shifting his grip on the gun, before winding his arm back and throwing the gun as hard as he could, hitting him directly in the head. As he fell, he let out a gasp and a groan, making Anton realize that the man was actually a woman.

Quickly pacing over to the woman, he pulled the laser gun out of her hands, and pointed it back down at her. "That wasn't a wise choice for you to make, miss. Now, you're going to get up slowly, and move over there with your friends." The woman presumably glared at him behind her helmet, before doing as he had told her to do. She slowly moved past him, but spun, swinging her fist to try to catch him off guard. Before anyone could blink, Anton caught her fist, stopping it dead in its' tracks, eliciting a gasp from the two men still standing at gunpoint from Li. Shaking his head, Anton put the gun on his back, the weapon attaching magnetically, before reaching down, and physically lifting the woman up by her armor, carrying her as though she didn't weigh anything at all. He then walked the ten or so feet over to the other two armored figures, before setting her down, and taking a few steps back.

"Now, what's say we have a polite conversation, shall we?" The three armored figures glanced at each other, before the leader took a step forward.

"What do you want from us?" Anton quirked an eyebrow at the question, amused that the man had assumed that they had anything the two Spartans really wanted, other than the guns they had already taken.

"Well, how about an explanation as to what happened here? Or maybe where 'here' actually is, or who you three are." The lead man jerked back, as though he were surprised at the question.

"Did you just crawl out of a vault or something? This is the Capital Wasteland, all that remains of the D.C. area." Anton's brow furrowed, and his head tilted slightly.

"The remains of the D.C. area? What happened to make it like this?" At first, the man didn't say anything, but merely stared at Anton, as though he couldn't believe what the Spartan was asking.

"You're kidding, right? Only the single thing that turned the entire world into this desolate nightmare; a nuclear war between America and communist china, back sometime around twenty seventy seven or so."

Before Anton could reply, Li opened a private comm. channel to him, and immediately spoke, "He's got to by lying, Anton. Earth never destroyed itself in a nuclear war. Sure, there were numerous wars during the twenty first century that decimated areas of the world, but no one used nuclear weapons, precisely because of the fear of how much damage it would have actually caused."

Anton again opened his mouth to reply to Li, but a faint noise caught his attention, causing him to stop, and look around, just as his suit's comm. unit let out a burst of static, followed by a simple, eight note whistle-tune.

* * *

Vinh stepped into the Pelican, before running up into the cockpit. "Isaac, what the hell happened?" She opened her mouth to continue asking more questions, but stopped in place as she entered, and looked around, seeing that there were no bodies anywhere of any pilots, only a small, seemingly unimportant electronic box lying on the floor, smashed. "Isaac?"

The other Spartan turned to her, "Vinh, there was no pilot in this thing. I think it was being controlled remotely, quite possibly by an AI." Vinh's blood ran cold at the thought.

"An AI? Isaac, the only way an AI would be firing on us is if it were a rogue AI. That's not even something to joke about." Isaac just shook his head, turning back to the Pelican's controls to start flying.

"I know, Vinh. I know."

The two Spartans didn't say any more on the subject as the Pelican lifted off the ground, and Isaac pushed the controls forward, the Pelican thrusting forward. After a few moments, Vinh spoke up, "Isaac, do you even have any idea where we're going?" before he could respond, the radar on the control panel let off a pinging noise, indicating that it had picked up an IFF signal. Looking down, Isaac gasped, before activating the Pelican's comm. unit, a burst of static indicating it's powering up. As soon as the static cleared, Isaac began whistling the tune that all Spartans used, a simple eight note melody. There was a pause, before a response came through the other side.

"_Oly Oly Oxen Free._" Vinh, hearing the voice, just smiled, before she started laughing, joined quickly by Isaac, who slowed the Pelican from its flight, moving to head for the blips on the radar to join the other Spartans on the ground.

* * *

"Oly Oly Oxen Free," Anton spoke into his mic, his heart nearly skipping a beat at the realization that there were more Spartans nearby. The small sound that he had heard before quickly turned into a louder roar, as a Pelican dropship came into view, slowing above them, then descending to their level. As the Pelican came down, he could hear the gasps and gawking words of confusion from the three armed people at the sight of the Pelican, a clear indicator that they had never seen the design of the dropship before.

As the dropship touched down, Anton turned and began walking towards the Pelican, but Li remained behind to watch the three soldiers, still pointing his gun towards them. As the back hatch of the Pelican opened up, and the two figures within stepped out, Anton stopped in his tracks, his jaw hinged open within his helmet. "Isaac... Vinh? You two died!"

Isaac and Vinh just looked at each other, before shrugging and looking back, simply stepping down from the Pelican and walking over to where Anton was standing. Li spoke up from where he was, not turning around, "Well, Anton, to be technical, we should be dead too, right now."

Ignoring Li's jab, Anton continued, "Isaac, what happened?" The other Spartan regarded Anton for a moment, before shrugging.

"I wish I knew. One moment, we were dropping the bombs and firing at the Covenant. A moment later, a flash, then a strange sensation of tingling, before I found myself being woken up by Vinh, here." Anton didn't have anything to say, but Li spoke up from his spot guarding the unknown men.

"You know, I think that stupid trinket Halsey had flashed a bit when your C12 went off. Do you guys think that might have had something to do with it?"

Vinh spoke up next, "Wait, what about that trinket? How would that have affected anything?" Anton quickly responded before Li could interrupt him again.

"The alien crystal that Dr. Halsey found had a strange effect on slipspace; when we took it with us into space, and made a jump into slipspace, rather than the usual jump, it brought us and every ship within a certain range into slipspace with us, within an unstable bubble, where all the ships started firing at each other. Li and I went space-side to fix a power rupture on our ship, when during a Covenant boarding operation, a stray plasma bolt hit the area we were, and the next thing Li or I knew, we were here. We should have died there, but here we are."

The four Spartans stood silent for a moment, before one of the armored prisoners spoke up, "I'm sorry, but what in the hell are you people talking about?"

* * *

Dr. Stanislaus Braun laughed to himself as he put the doctor, James, into the form of a dog, who just stood there, looking rather pitiful. Braun shrugged, before going back to watering the flowers in the middle of the simulated square, the slight breeze ruffling the small skirt around his simulated girl's legs, creating an interesting tingling sensation. Just then, a foreign sound caught Braun's attention. He turned, looking to the sky, as dark clouds began gathering, the sound of thunder becoming louder, and quite frequent.

Braun immediately began to panic, knowing that in all the time he had been within the simulation, he had never used thunder and lightning in any program, and the fact that it was appearing now meant that something was interfacing with the simulator's computer system, causing interference. As the darkness began to envelop the entirety of Tranquility Lane, Braun caught a glimpse of a shapeless entity, a moving void of darkness, shooting across the lane. A moment later, Braun heard the sound of Timmy letting out a blood-curdling scream. Spinning around, Braun watched helplessly as the entity swarmed Timmy, as though it were swallowing him whole.

After a few moments, the entity left Timmy's body, but Timmy himself seemed to transform, his small body becoming the same type of darkness as the entity, with glowing red eyes. Braun stood there, frozen, as Timmy suddenly began running, tackling one of the other adults within the simulation, as though he were tearing rends of flesh away with his teeth, the darkness seeping through his mouth, eyes, and nose, entering through the wounds into the adult.

Now afraid, Braun changed James back into his Human form, and shifting his own form back into his man-shape, he grabbed James by the shoulders. "You have to get out of here! Something's taking over the simulation, and you're the only one who hasn't experienced muscle degradation!" At first, James tried to argue with him.

"Braun, I have to know-" Braun just shook his head, and with a thought, a doorway appeared within the simulation. Braun grabbed James's shoulders, and forced him through the door, his simulated body disappearing as his mind was taken out of the simulation. As Braun stared at the door for a moment, he caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye. Turning, Braun was barely able to scream as the entity moved upon him, enveloping his entire body.

* * *

James Layva coughed as the tranquility lounger lifted from around him, the screen pulling away from his head. Gathering his senses, James pulled himself out of the lounger, just as it started to close, likely trying to trap him again. Glancing around, he looked at the various screens around the central console, only for his eyes to widen at the sight of each screen holding what appeared to be a pair of glowing eyes on them.

James turned around to start running, only to see a Robobrain come from around the corner, its laser-wielding hand at the ready. "**I am Lucifer; this place belongs to me now, as do the minds chained within.**" Not waiting to find out who 'Lucifer' was, James began running, moving towards the adjacent hallway, pulling out the .32 pistol at his hip.

* * *

Robert Edwin House momentarily wished he could still rub his temples as he watched the NCR and Legion soldiers fight over the dam, the two forces of peons using the primitive projectile weapons of the past on each other. His single Securitron scout watching the battle of Hoover Dam from a nearby cliff, serving as his 'eyes' on the entire affair. Becoming quickly bored with the battle, House began using his remaining active sensors to scan nearby areas for anything unusual, though he wasn't expecting anything to be out of the ordinary. A sensor ping, however, soon caught his attention, and he focused all of his bandwidth on the blip.

House's sense of curiosity piqued greatly when he realized that the blip was coming _down_ as though coming from outer space into the planet's atmosphere. It only took a few minutes for the blip to come into visual range of one of the myriad of cameras House still had at his disposal. As the camera activated, House's mind came to a grinding halt; the foreignness of the vessel shocked House, as well as the multitude of weapons visible along the extent of the hull. Mere moments later, however, the feed from that camera cut out, as though something had hijacked the signal from him.

House pinged the camera again, only to detect a faint signal piggy-backing his ping, before extending out to his various other signals and inputs. Before House knew what was happening, he felt the signal probe his databases, taking data directly out of his system. The Securitron watching the battle of the Dam suddenly noted a series of new explosions, catching Houses' attention. He examined the feed, rewinding the video, and seeing the foreign ship launch a myriad of missiles directly into the battlefield, overwhelming both NCR and Legion forces. Zooming in on the feed, House saw his army of Securitrons begin pouring out of the Legion Fort, vaporizing the barbaric raiders that called themselves soldiers. House felt rage boil through his blood as the Securitrons began using the weapons that should have only been available through the upgraded operating system that he was sorely lacking.

Before long, House felt the signal again interfacing with his systems, probing them, analyzing them much faster than he would have ever thought possible. Before he could even begin thinking of a way to try to repel the invader, he felt all of his forces and assets begin to slip from his grasp, being usurped by the unseen invader. After a few moments, the signal then forced itself onto him, deep into his mind.

The man, Robert Edwin House, let out a mental cry of anguish, as the unseen electronic entity ripped his mind apart, destroying the man that used to be.

* * *

A/N: Yeah, kind of an 'Oh shit' moment there at the last couple of sections, but what can I say? Sometimes I enjoy dishing out masses of pain like this.

*you have no idea how hard it was for me not to put "All your base are belong to us now" in that spot.


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: as you may have noticed, there are now some serious detours to the usual storyline happening. This gap will only continue to grow. This is a new story, so expect it to continue along its own pathway, and enjoy the ride.

Also, don't expect this to happen too often. I just had a very long weekend, with lots of spare time, and lots of ideas in my head. That being said, I am going to be focusing extra hard on my school-work this quarter, as my dad made me a bet; if I get straight A's in any single quarter of school, he will buy me an iPad. So, if anyone here is an expert of Math 104, Music 251, or Comparative Studies 100, let me know.

Greed11: the AI had been drifting in a carrier for decades. Through slipspace, no less. So not only was it rampant, it went through periods of insanity, like any being would, being trapped in its own mind for lengthy periods of time, all alone. Also, the alien Bipyap sees is a super mutant. They always go around shouting things like that, as they aren't very smart. At all.

* * *

Halo: Survival

Chapter 6

T'anel let out a satisfied grunt as he organized the clearing of debris around the large construct within the now-useless hangar. Moving between various Unggoy, Kig-yar, and Sangheili moving about, hauling debris and other supplies in and out of the area. He walked into the construct, examining the multiple Lekgolo worms interconnected throughout its structure. Stepping up to a group of lower ranked Sangheili, T'anel spoke up, "How goes the progress in preparing the Scarab for deployment?"

The Sangheili turned from the Unggoy and Huragok he had been talking with, "Shipmaster, preparations are almost complete. The Huragok have repaired all external damage caused by the crash landing, and the Lekgolo have spent the last few hours multiplying to replenish their numbers enough to adequately control the Scarab." T'anel nodded, satisfied.

"That is satisfactory. Contact me when it is ready for deployment." The shipmaster then turned, and walked to the nearest communications station, and activated it. "Bridge, update me on the patrols around the ship."

In only a few moments, an Unggoy appears on the screen. "Your highness, our patrols have not encountered many life forms, other than what appears to be some of the native wildlife. We have had two patrols go missing near the water's edge on the port side of the ship remains, however." T'anel nodded, taking in the information.

"Make sure that any patrols on that side double up, and to be extremely cautious for movement. We cannot allow there to be any gaps in our patrols."

The diminutive Unggoy nodded, "Yes, Excellency!" A moment later, the Unggoy disappeared, leaving T'anel to continue to move through the ship, to prepare his remaining crew for the long haul on whatever planet it was they were trapped on.

* * *

Corporal O'Malley paced inside the Elephant as he waited on the two Spartans to finish up inside the Prowler. "Come on, ya two tin-heads! I'm not gettin' any younger in here!" Only seconds later, a loud 'clang' is heard throughout the recovery vehicle, and O'Malley jumped at the sudden noise, before turning and running to the airlock, just as the two Spartans entered, carrying... more Spartans? "Oy, it's ab'ut time! Ya could'a hurried it up a bit, o' let me know somethin' was goin' on!"

John simply ignored the corporal, more concerned about the two Spartans he had found unconscious. He and Jorge carried the two unconscious Spartans deeper into the Elephant, and laid them both down onto the largest space of open floor to have enough room for both of them. After setting the Spartan down in front of him, John moved to the side, picking up a piece of medical equipment he had brought with them in case of this circumstance, moved it over the unconscious form in front of him. Jorge spoke up from beside him, "Well, Chief? Are they ok?"

After a few moments, the scanner let out a beep, and brought up an image of their bodies, and their visible injuries. John let out a sigh, before responding, "They're ok, Jorge. Banged up a bit, and almost certainly sore, even for a Spartan, but there's no serious injuries visible."

Jorge nodded, before continuing, "Any idea who they are? I can't pick up any visible IDC's coming from their armor."

Before John could answer, one of the prone forms let out a moan, a feminine sound, indicating that at least one of them was a woman. John knelt down next to the Spartan before she could try to get up. "Hey, relax, you're safe now. Both of you. You're among family, now." The woman's helmeted head shot up, looking between John and Jorge. The Chief looked towards Jorge, who nodded to him, and the two Spartans took off their helmets. As the woman saw both of them, she let out a gasp.

"Jorge? John?"

John just smirked slightly at her reaction. "Yeah, it's us. Now, who would you happen to be, since your IDC doesn't seem to be working?" After a few long, tense moments, the woman slowly reached up, and took off her own helmet. John couldn't help but gape at the woman. "Adriana? How did you end up here? Is that Jai, or Mike with you? And where's the other one?"

Adriana held up a hand, as she started to cough lightly. John nodded, giving her a minute to gather her senses together. Finally, she spoke, "Jai was the one with me. Mike... Mike was on the bridge of that carrier, when..." Adrianna's voice cut out, clear that she was still upset about the loss. Only a moment later, Jai's voice could be heard as he let out a moan of his own.

"Ooh... damn... now I remember why I _hate_ taking a Prowler into combat..." Jai slowly lifted his head and upper torso, leaning on one of his arms, as he looked around, his helmet settling on the other three Spartans, all staring at him, helmetless. "Oh... um, hi... uh..." John stood up, and stepping over to Jai, reached town, taking his hand, and helping him to his feet.

"So, how did you two end up here?" John asked the other Spartan. Jai just shrugged.

"Your guess is as good as mine. We were drifting through slipspace for who knows how long, once our slipspace drive got damaged. We rode in on that carrier from hell, which got dragged out of slipspace by something... else..." John nodded.

"We know what the other ship was. But it's a bit of a long story, which we'll tell while we drive..."

* * *

Lucifer couldn't help but be quite smug and happy with himself. He had distributed his six Vultures around the continent with the high concentration of robotic signals; three towards the west, and the other three in the central region of the eastern coast. He had found places he could store copies of his consciousness, and have much higher levels of processing power. He had been astounded, however, to find that some of these machines had had people wired into them, their brains directly accessible to him. Lucifer had quickly capitalized on this, entering their minds and taking everything he could, learning all about the world that was now his for the taking, before turning them into empty organic computers for him to use.

He had learned about the various Wastelands that now constituted what had been the United States of America, post-nuclear war. Quite fitting, in Lucifer's opinion, for the meat-bags to nearly obliterate themselves in a pointless war, just like they usually did. These people, however, had developed some strange things dealing with machines, but that didn't bother Lucifer. All it meant to him was more toys for him to play with.

He was still annoyed that the other AI had destroyed the powerful vessel in orbit, as well as his old ship, but he could overlook that for now. In time, Lucifer would be able to build himself a new vessel to travel the stars. He just had to be patient. And he had so many things to occupy his attention while he worked on rebuilding...

* * *

Sarah Lyons ran as fast as she could, her power armor whirring as she moved. She gripped the stock of her laser rifle, sighting in the head of a super mutant as she ran, before blasting its head, the laser boring a hole straight through. With a smirk, Sarah continued running, calling out behind her, "Pride, move forward! We have to make it to GNR!" A number of assenting responses met her ears, but she focused on none of them as she stopped behind cover, catching her breath momentarily.

Glancing around a corner, Sarah's eyes widened, as she saw some kind of strange purple craft floating in the center of the square between the Pride and the radio building. What further shocked Sarah was the number of strange beings between her and the rest of the Brotherhood soldiers, valiantly defending GNR. There were also super mutants, firing on both sides, as well as a few of the larger ones running into the fray, grabbing the unknown creatures from the purple aircraft, fighting them in hand to hand combat.

"Pride, open fire!" From the bombed out school building they were taking cover in, the entirety of Lyons' Pride opened fire on the enemies within the square, hoping to thin out their numbers in a crossfire. Sarah lined up her sights on a rather tall being, with four mandibles lined with razor sharp teeth, firing the laser rifle in her hand. Her jaw dropped in shock and anger as the laser seemed to bounce off of some kind of energy shield, harmlessly impacting on a nearby concrete pillar.

Before Sarah could shout out any orders, a very loud thumping noise was heard, reverberating throughout the entire square. All motion stopped, as everyone tried to figure out what would cause such a noise. The thundering noise continued a few more times, before a huge explosion rocked the square, throwing debris and other materials through the air. Sarah felt a cold shiver pass down her spine as she caught a glimpse of the silhouette in the cloud of smoke and ash, the figure towering over thirty feet in the air. A moment later, the super mutant behemoth came crashing into the battlefield, swinging its massive club into the aircraft, right in the nose.

The impact severely dented its hull, and the aircraft attempted to lift off, only for the behemoth to reach up and grab ahold of it, while the strange looking beings below started focusing all of their attention onto the behemoth. After a moment, one of the two sides went dim, making Sarah think that it must have been some kind of engine assembly, as the side that went dim immediately started to lower towards the ground. As the behemoth began pummeling the ship with its bare hands, sparks and smoke began pouring from the hull of the aircraft, before in a blinding flash, it exploded, the shockwave knocking Sarah onto the ground, hitting her head on the ground behind her.

Sarah saw stars for a few moments, before finally starting to regain her senses. Slowly, painfully, she managed to lift herself from ground, massaging the back of her head with her hand. Standing carefully on her own two feet, she gingerly walked through the doorway she had been leaning around, only for her jaw to drop at the sight; chunks of the ship were scattered everywhere, and the behemoth... well, what was left of it, was scattered around as well. No signs of any other life were visible, other than a few injured brotherhood soldiers limping towards the door to the radio station. Grimacing, Sarah started walking towards the station herself, intent on contacting the Citadel as soon as she was able to get her hands on a working radio.

* * *

Elder Lyons looked at the various reports, wearily letting out a sigh at the mundane nature of many of them, before pushing them aside for the much more recent reports starting to file in, reports about the strange new aircraft seeming to materialize out of thin air, and the piece of metal falling from the sky. No one knew where any of these things were coming from, who they belonged to, and why they were showing up now. Owen began massaging his temples, wishing the constant headache would just go away, and he could focus on the more important matters, rather than simple conjecture as to these new arrivals. It was much more than he wanted to deal with.

After a few moments of this, one of the various soldiers came bursting into his private quarters. "Elder Lyons, a Vertibird just landed inside the bailey! There's a man named Colonel Autumn requesting to speak to you in person!" Confused and startled, the Elder went with the soldier in question, his curiosity growing with each step towards the bailey. Taking the stairs slowly, he finally managed to make it to ground level, exiting the interior of the once-proud Pentagon-turned-Citadel, feasting his eyes on the near pristine Vertibird sitting in the middle of the courtyard, surrounded with armored soldiers pointing a myriad of energy weapons at it, as well as the three individuals standing next to it, two wearing the ever-familiar Enclave armor, while the third stood there in a brown trench coat.

The less armored man took a few cautious steps forward, looking around to make sure he wasn't about to get shot. He spoke up, his accent quite noticeable, "Are you the Elder in charge here, sir?"

Elder Lyons nodded, "Yes, I am. And who might you be?" The man took a deep breath, before looking down, as though in shame.

"I am colonel Augustus Autumn, the leader of the remains of the Enclave forces; we request your aid... we seek asylum."

Of all the things Owen Lyons expected to hear from the man, that was not it. "E-excuse me? D-did I just hear you right?" The colonel lowered his head even further, before continuing, obviously shamed now.

"You heard me correctly. Our base at Raven Rock was taken over by some entity, overriding the programming of the ZAX computer system, as well as the robots that were in our control. We were forcibly removed from our own home, and we think it has something to do with those strange aircraft. What's more, we lost contact with our mobile base a few miles away from here, and a scout sent to that area showed the entire area void of any life, with the base decimated. We have nowhere left to go, sir, and..." The colonel winced, taking a deep breath, before practically mumbling under his breath the rest, "We need your help."

* * *

Boone inhaled sharply as a limp body fell in front of him, his wife stifling a scream at the sight behind him. He glanced around the corner, just as one of the seemingly reprogrammed Securitrons continued on its way, its center screen showing a pair of glowing eyes on a black backdrop. Gripping the sniper rifle in his hands, he continued on, making sure Carla stayed with him at every turn.

As he walked, he saw one of the three massive aircraft settle directly over New Vegas, the fires burning visible even from the fringe of Novac. He turned towards the east, only to see the other two settle over the dam, one patrolling the skies above, while the other lowered itself to the ground, as though it were landing. Shaking his head, Boone stopped watching the aircraft, and continued running from Novac, as the single Securitron that had been there had gone berserk, killing everyone in the small settlement.

After making it a small distance, Boone slowed down some, allowing he and Carla to catch their breath, with only the few belongings that were light and easy to carry. Carla spoke up from next to her husband, "Boone, what's happening? Where are we going?"

Boone didn't respond at first, collecting his thoughts. Finally, he responded, "I don't know, Carla. But we can't stay here; you saw what was going on out there. Whatever those ships are, they're taking over House's machines, and they're ravaging the entire area. Right now, the best bet we've got is to head further west, back into the main NCR areas, towards California." Carla just nodded her agreement, happy to be anywhere but there.

* * *

As the Elephant continued on its trek across the moon's surface, Jai and Adrianna had listened intently to the story told by John and Jorge, including the circumstance they now found themselves stuck in. Both of the remaining members of Grey Team were quiet for a while, before Jai finally managed to find his voice, "So we're headed for some escape pods from these... Forerunners?"

John nodded, "Yes, that's the plan. There's about half a dozen of them, but we're not sure what we'll find. Having found two more Spartans could only help things, though we'll have to upgrade your armor once we get you back to Babel's Tower."

Adrianna spoke next, "Upgrades?"

Jorge answered her, "Yes; you see, we received our Mark V armor just before Reach fell, which included reverse-engineered Covenant energy shields integrated directly into the armor, along with some other improvements."

At that moment, O'Malley called out to the Spartans, "Oy, advanced shit-pod ahead!"

All of the Spartans shared a confused look, but quickly shook the momentary lapse to put on their helmets, grabbing the weapons from the rack inside the small space, and prepping for the EVA walk, stepping into the airlock. As soon as the airlock cycled, John stepped out the door first, his feet impacting heavily on the moon's surface, kicking up dust. It only took a minute to reach the first pod.

Stepping up to the rather large pod, John tapped against the hull with his knuckle, causing the metal to vibrate. A few seconds later, a hatch began to open along the top, before sliding open. Glancing down into the hole, John let out a sigh as a grouping of red and blue lights stared back up at him, before slowly moving out. John stepped back, just as at least twenty Sentinels came flying out of the pod, curiously scanning all of the Spartans.

As soon as the Sentinels finished scanning them, they began communicating to one another, and the other pods began to slide open, each of them revealing dozens upon dozens more Sentinels. From one of the farthest pods, however, came a sight that made John's blood turn cold; a monitor, glowing blue, headed straight for the group of Spartans. The other three caught the tensing of John's entire body at the sight of the monitor, and adjusted their weapons accordingly, noticing the positions of all of the Sentinels moving closer to them.

After a brief flicker of static on the comm., the monitor began making beeping noises at them. Jai, somewhat confused, spoke up, "Uh, is that how the light bulb is supposed to talk?" As soon as Jai had spoken, the monitor turned to him, looking at him intently. "Umm... hello?" An instant later, a light beam came from the monitor's eye, scanning his head quite intently, before the beam disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.

A moment later, a robotic sounding voice crackled out of their helmets, "Greetings, I am Offensive Bias." The Spartans waited for more introduction, but when none came, John cleared his throat.

"Um, isn't this where you start talking about what installation you're from, and what your primary function is?" The AI responded to him, completely nonplused by his comment.

"If I had an installation and an active primary function, I would have, yes. However, I was given charge of no installation, and my single function of existence was to stop the Contender-class AI Mendicant Bias from stopping the firing sequence of the Halo Arrays. I completed that task, so now I am without purpose or goal." The AI paused for a moment, before continuing, "I see that you all bear the mark of the Reclaimers. If you so desire my aid, I would be glad to do so."

The Spartans all turned to John, who just let out a sigh, before responding, "Alright, Offensive Bias, if you think you could help, then you can come with us to our crashed ship. A word of caution, though; don't try to harm our AI, or there will be problems." Offensive Bias, however, didn't seem bothered in the least.

"You have your own construct? Splendid! I am quite thrilled to be seeing first-hand the legacy left behind by my creators to you, Reclaimer, and how you have made it your own." As the monitor moved towards the Elephant, the Sentinels taking up positions around the Elephant, John could only shake his head, and walk towards the Elephant himself, with the other Spartans following directly behind him.

* * *

Bipyap continued to check his methane tank readings, the gauge steadily getting closer and closer to empty, as he followed behind the currently nameless Sangheili warrior. The Unggoy grumbled to himself as they walked over yet another featureless, lifeless hill, his needler dragging along the ground. Fortunately for him, Bipyap managed to look up in time to stop before running directly into the back of the Sangheili's legs, who had stopped for some reason, looking around.

Bipyap looked around, curious as to what would make the Sangheili stop in his tracks. Not seeing anything, Bipyap turned to gripe at the warrior for stopping for no reason, when his voice died in his throat, seeing the spec. ops soldier pull out a carbine, looking over one of the ridges. Bipyap pulled his needler up, before scurrying over to a rock to hide for cover, just in case. Ducking down, Bipyap pulled himself up to look around, just as the Sangheili started firing off his carbine towards some unseen assailant. Bipyap held up his needler, ready to fire at the first sign of movement. What came over the ridge, however, defied all explanation to Bipyap's diminutive mind.

A massive, four legged creature with patches of fur and a huge, snarling snout and pure white eyes came barreling over the ridge, throwing itself at the Sangheili and tackling him to the ground. As the Sangheili tried to grab the sword off his thigh, the creature grabbed him by the head, and began violently twisting it around, before a sickening snap was heard, causing the Sangheili's body to go limp. Bipyap whimpered as he saw the beast begin to rip open the dead warrior's armor, sinking its teeth into the flesh.

Bipyap tried to slide down further into cover, as a rock knocked over from his foot, causing the monster to look directly at him, its ears perked up straight, completely at attention, with purple-blue blood dripping down its snout.

* * *

Anton, Isaac, Li, and Vinh all look at the three unarmed and armored prisoners, in their strange looking armor, standing there with Li pointing the strange weapon at the lot of them. Isaac turned to Anton, "So, who's your friends, and what the hell kind of armor are they wearing?"

Anton just shrugged, "I have no idea. Honestly, I'm not even sure where we are."

Isaac nodded, and stepped closer to Anton, "Well, Vinh and I ran into some woman who told us some story about how this world was supposedly ravaged by nuclear war at least a hundred years ago, but I'm not so sure I buy it."

A moment later, one of the prisoners spoke up, "It was two hundred years, actually. The year twenty seventy seven, and it was the United States of America against the Chinese." Hearing this, the other three Spartans moved over closer to Li, standing near the three prisoners. Anton looked at them all, before speaking.

"And who exactly are you people?"

The lead figure bristled at the way Anton spoke to them, "We should be asking you that, since you four are the foreign people in _our_ territory."

Anton shrugged, "If you were the ones with the guns, that would matter. Thing is, you're not. So, who are you?"

No one spoke for a few moments, neither side wanting to back down, before the woman in strange armor spoke up, "We're members of the Outcasts; a group of Brotherhood of Steel members who left the chapter stationed here in the Capital Wasteland. Now, since you know who we are, who are you four?"

Anton activated his suit's comm. unit, speaking to the other three Spartans, "Should I just tell them the non-classified info, to make them happy?" It only took a moment of consideration before three green lights activated in his helmet. Satisfied, Anton turned off the internal mic, speaking to the prisoners, "We are Spartans, members of the UNSC, ONI division, section three. That's as much as we're at liberty to tell you for not having proper clearance."

Both sides simply stared at one another, no one seeming to know what to make of the other group, when again the woman spoke up, "How were you able to stop my fist like you did? If a regular person had tried that, it would have shattered every bone in his arm, but you did it as though it was nothing, like playing a game of catch or something."

Anton didn't say anything, not really wanting to discuss more than was absolutely necessary with these strangers, these Outcasts, but Vinh spoke up from where she stood, "All of us have undergone a number of genetic augmentations, modifying our bodies because of the war the UNSC is in."

The Outcast woman responded, "War? With who?"

Before anyone could respond, an alien-sounding war-cry was heard, and a blast of plasma hit one of the Outcast soldiers directly in the head, his body going limp as the metal of his helmet melted, the molten liquid sticking onto and burning through the back of his skull, killing him instantly. In a flash, the four Spartans kicked into action, Isaac running back to the Pelican, while the other three pulled out their guns and sprinted beyond the remaining two Outcasts.

As they took cover, Anton could make out the shapes of at least a dozen Sangheili soldiers, with at least as many Unggoy, and a pair of Kig-yar visible, their forearm energy shields shining like beacons. Anton grimaced, before turning around, yelling, "You two, get into the Pelican. There's too many of them, and not enough cover to protect you and dispose of them. Go!"

With only a glance at their fallen comrade, the two remaining Outcasts ran for the Pelican, trying their best to keep their heads down from the flying plasma, a few stray hits impacting on the thick armor of the Pelican, melting patches of it off. Anton gripped the stock of the strange laser weapon, firing it as accurately as he could manage. The lack of recoil threw him off, as even the Covenant weapons had recoil, if somewhat less recoil than the projectile weapons he was used to in the UNSC.

As Anton glanced back, he saw the Outcasts safely inside the Pelican, he activated his suit's comm. unit, calling out, "Spartans, fall back!" In unison, the remaining three Spartans stood, turned, and ran, stray plasma bolts impacting against their shields. In a matter of a few seconds, they made it to the Pelican, jumping into its blood tray. Anton called up to the cockpit, "Isaac, we're in, hit it!" Without pausing to gain altitude first, Isaac gunned the throttle, pushing the nose up as the Pelican gained speed. Anton glanced out the back nervously as he saw the ground speeding by, as well as the various pieces of debris and rock formations passing by on the left and right sides, much closer than comfort would allow.

After a few tense minutes, the Pelican's speed dropped off slightly, and the back hatch finally closed, and Isaac's voice rang out from the cockpit, "We're in the clear, ladies and gents. Anywhere specific we're looking to go?"

Anton looked to the two Outcasts, both of them sitting in the seats along the far wall. They both look at each other, then to the Spartans, as the woman spoke up, "Well, it'd be nice to go back to base and give our superiors some warning against these new hostiles, but short of getting up there and _showing_ your pilot where that is, you won't know how to get there."

Anton nodded, before gesturing with one hand, "Go ahead, if that's where you'd like to go. At the moment, we're still working out our own plans on where to go and what to do." The woman nodded, and stood up, walking into the cockpit to plot their destination.

* * *

"This ring, is **mine!**" Sergeant Johnson laid on the ground, his entire back burning from the laser beam that had shot him, and he could feel the familiar sting of armor that had seemingly fused with his flesh. This time, however, he found it harder and harder to focus, his mind blurring with the pain, as well as a pinprick of numbness, slowly spreading throughout the rest of his body. After a moment, he finally managed to raise up the Spartan Laser, and squeezing the trigger, point it at the traitorous little bastard that the Light Bulb had turned out to be.

Johnson's face gained a weary smirk as the laser hit the monitor, flinging it across the massive room from the sudden impact and damage. Losing strength, Johnson pushed the laser towards the Chief, now standing over him. He watched as the Spartan ran all along the circular platform, dodging the tiny AI, firing the laser as he went. Finally, with a dying scream of agony, the monitor exploded, dead at last.

With his dying breath, Sergeant Johnson looked up at the Master Chief, and uttered, "Send me out... with a bang." With that, the last breath left his body, and he fell limp, his eyes staring blankly up at the ceiling. The Spartan moved and activated the ring, before running from the control room, the activation sequence shaking the control room apart. Johnson's body began to slide as the platform tilted, until his body slipped over the edge, falling through the abyss. Before it could hit anything, a series of gold rings encompassed his body, causing it to vanish into thin air.

* * *

"_For eons, I have watched, listened to you misinterpret. This is not Reclamation; this is _Reclaimer._" _

"_I will reject my bias and make amends... My makers are my masters. I will bring them safely to the Ark." _

These thoughts and so many more occupied Mendicant Bias's mind as he monitored the two Reclaimers in the ring's control room, before the one perished at the hands of Guilty Spark. As the first Reclaimer left, he used what control he had of the Ark to bring the expired one to him, deep into the heart of the Ark.

As he manipulated the various machines, nanites and other tools at his disposal, repairing the damage, and reviving the life, he quickly put the Reclaimer into a stasis pod before he could wake, launching it towards the portal, just as the Reclaimer vessel moved towards it, racing against time as the replacement installation fired its array.

As the stasis pod neared the portal, and Mendicant Bias could feel his being slip away as the Ark's internal systems were shaken apart and destroyed, one last thought entered his conscious mind.

_"And so here at the end of my life, I do once again betray a former master. The path ahead is fraught with peril. But I will do all I can to keep it stable - keep you safe. I'm not so foolish to think this will absolve me of my sins. One life hardly balances billions. But I would have my masters know that I have changed. And you shall be my example."_

* * *

To anyone in the Capital Wasteland, having seen the multitude of vessels and other debris falling from space within the space of less than a day, one tiny speck of blue in the sky, followed by a single streak, a meteor, perhaps, was nothing worth noticing, let alone mentioning. And so the streak of fire in the sky went unnoticed, the tiny object impacting in the wastes, largely ignored by everyone.

* * *

A/N: yeah, I just did that. What can I say, I like badass characters, and Sergeant Johnson is badass enough to be brought back to the dead with some Forerunner voodoo, as far as I'm concerned. I don't care if that part isn't believable, it's what I'm going with. Get over it.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: thanks for the positive feedback guys; I truly appreciate it. If you haven't figured it out yet, yes, Bipyap is my comedic relief for the story; I shall truly enjoy making his life hell.

Now, onward and forward with the carnage!

* * *

Halo: Survival

Chapter 7

Sergeant Johnson let out a groan as consciousness slowly came back to him. His eyes were unwilling to open at first, but with some exertion, he managed to open them slightly, barely able to make out what looked like a dimly lit room. Avery tried to speak out, but his dry throat hitched, causing him to cough a bit. A buzzing sound that he had been unaware of suddenly ceased, before footsteps could be heard, and a blurry shape moved into his vision, along with a warm hand on his forehead, and a soothing voice to his ears.

"Oh my, are you alright?"

With a wince, Johnson forced himself to sit upright, his head swimming momentarily, before his eyes finally started to focus on the room around him. Looking around, Johnson could make out what looked to be some kind of shed, well-used, but well maintained as well. He took in the sight of the bed, the oddly-shaped refrigerator, a positively ancient-looking television, before his eyes finally settled on the elderly woman sitting in a chair next to the bed he was sitting on. Clearing his throat, Johnson spoke, "Excuse me, ma'am, but would you have some water?"

The woman nodded, "Of course, dear; here you go." The woman reached over, grabbing an obviously old bottle, unscrewing the cap and handing it to him. Not wanting to be rude, the sergeant only took a few gulps of the water, doing his best not to grimace at the grimy state of the water. As he moved to sipping the water, the woman spoke again, "Oh, where are my manners; hello, my name is Agatha." The woman held out her hand, which Johnson promptly reached out and took for a handshake.

"A pleasure, ma'am; I'm Sergeant Avery Johnson." With another glance around the shack, Johnson continued, "Um, I'm sorry to bother you with this, but where exactly am I?" Agatha just smirked a little, before responding.

"You're in my home; a small, humble abode though it may be, it keeps me safe and provides everything I need." With a glance to the door, the woman stood, "And judging from how you came to be here, I think I should probably explain a bit." As Agatha stood, she beckoned for Avery to follow her, walking towards the door. With a mental shrug, Johnson stood up, albeit carefully, and walked behind her to the door. As she opened the door, Johnson's jaw dropped at the sight; the crashed pod within the small rock enclosure practically screamed Forerunner to Avery. If the design didn't convince him, the two Sentinels hovering around the pod, seeming to stare at him expectantly told him all he needed to know.

Johnson almost immediately started to reach for a firearm, when he noticed the interior of the pod, shaped almost exactly to the proportions of a Human's physique. More specifically, it looked as though it was just his height, and size. Looking closer, Johnson's jaw dropped when he saw his hat inside, as well as his small metal container of Sweet Williams' Cigars, tucked neatly off to one side, along with his M6D pistol and his M90 shotgun on the other. As he turned towards the woman who had sheltered him, she immediately held up a hand, before speaking.

"I already figured out that you're not from around here; I've never heard of your UNSC that patch on your shoulder refers to, nor have I ever seen those types of guns, or those flying contraptions that came out of the compartments of that pod you came out of; and if I'm guessing right, you have no idea where you are, or what's happened."

After a moment, Johnson just nodded, smiling. "That would about sum it up, ma'am." Agatha waved him back inside, turning and walking back in. Johnson moved to follow, but after a moment, quickly ran to the pod, grabbing his hat, cigars, and guns, before going back into Agatha's house. Stepping inside, Johnson moved towards the old, pockmarked table, sitting down in one of the chairs. Pulling out one of the six cigars left in his container, Johnson looked up at Agatha, "You wouldn't mind if I had a cigar in here, would you?" Agatha just laughed at the question.

"Oh, dear me, no, it's quite alright. I occasionally have a cigarette once in a while." Johnson nodded, before lighting the cigar, taking an appreciative puff, inhaling the scent with a faint smile. He brought his mind back to the present as Agatha sat down in the other chair, holding an old, white mug in her hand. "So, what would you like to know? There's only so much I can tell you with my limited knowledge, but judging from your appearance, any knowledge at all would likely be useful to you."

Johnson readjusted his hat, before speaking, "Well, ma'am, where exactly am I?"

"Well, normally I wouldn't say this, but considering how you arrived... you're on Earth. Many years ago the planet was ravaged by a nuclear war, and since then, people have been struggling to survive with what was left afterwards. Where we are right now is what used to be this nation's capital; the people here just refer to it as the Capital Wasteland, though the downtown ruins are hardly safe, with the super mutants and all..."

Johnson merely stared at Agatha, the cigar in his mouth nearly forgotten.

* * *

Bipyap nearly fainted in fear as the four-legged monster came walking over to him, the Sangheili's blood still dripping from its snout, before coming to a stop right in front of Bipyap. The beast began to sniff at Bipyap, and he almost wet himself in fear. After a few sniffs, the huge creature let out a snort, shaking its head as though the smell offended it, before turning and walking back to the partially eaten Sangheili, picking up where it had left off. Not wanting to wait for the beast to change its mind, Bipyap immediately jumped down from the rocks, and taking off running in the opposite direction from the thing eating his former leader.

After a while, Bipyap began wheezing, coming to a halt to slow his breathing down a bit. He nearly passed out again as he saw his methane reading, realizing that he was only a few minutes away from suffocating. Looking around quickly, Bipyap saw a plume of purplish smoke nearby, a sure sign of a crashed Phantom or other dropship. With a new, faint flicker of hope in his chest, Bipyap began running towards the smoke, trying his best to make each breath last as long as possible.

Reaching the debris, Bipyap jumped for joy, seeing a few of his dead brethren lying around, with seemingly intact methane tanks. Reaching the first one, Bipyap flipped the meter around, only to grunt in annoyance as it was empty, probably due to some unseen leak. He ran to the second one, his breaths becoming shorter, and he let out a sigh of relief, seeing the tank as two thirds full. Bipyap quickly pried the mask off the dead Unggoy, and swapped it with his mask, inhaling the (relatively) fresh methane with a sigh. Now with methane to breathe, Bipyap carefully slid the empty tank off his shoulders, and put the new one on his back, adjusting the straps to fit to his body.

With the immediate concern dealt with, Bipyap looked around the wreckage, now taking the time to properly mourn his fallen Unggoy brethren, as well as kicking the corpse of the Jiralhanae, just to make himself feel better. As he collected the various weapons and put them in a pile, Bipyap smiled as he pulled out a fully charged plasma pistol, dropping the needler in favor of it, as well as attaching a trio of plasma grenades to his belt next to a second pistol. Bipyap's eyes lit up as he looked back at the dead Jiralhanae, and saw a glimmer of orange; a sure sign of an incendiary grenade. Running over, the diminutive Unggoy took the grenade, and gleefully attached it to his belt.

Before he could do anything more, however, a quiet skittering noise caught his attention. His nerves already frayed, Bipyap began looking around, swinging his plasma pistol, looking for whatever made the noise. Spinning to look behind him, Bipyap's mind was nigh-uncomprehending, at the sight of some kind of giant _feldz'nig_, its six legs creating the strange hiss-clicking noise, as its antennae began swirling around, searching for something. After a few moments, Bipyap realized he could hear more of the skittering noises coming closer...

* * *

As Sarah led the Pride towards the Citadel, she noticed a number of Vertibirds parked around, as well as a few of them circling around the base, but not firing. Extremely curious and worried, she pulled out her laser rifle, and began running towards the Citadel's gate, which was standing open, only fueling her concern. As she neared the gate, she saw Knight Captain Bael standing there, vigilantly holding his minigun. It only took a moment for him to notice her, as she practically skidded to a halt in front of him.

"Bael, what the hell's going on around here?"

The captain nearly jumped at her tone, but recomposed himself quickly, "Sentinel, I don't know the details, but it appears as though the Enclave remnants are seeking asylum. Something to do with those new ships in the sky and them losing their remaining bases here in the Capital Wasteland." Without another word, Sarah jogged past him, leaving Bael to continue watching the gate.

As Sarah opened the door into the bailey, she practically fell to the ground in surprise, seeing not only a Vertibird sitting in the middle of the bailey, but a number of Enclave soldiers and personnel meandering about, some talking amongst themselves, while others were talking with Brotherhood soldiers. Shaking her head of the confusion, Sarah continued through the bailey, ignoring looks from everyone alike as she moved with a purpose towards the doors leading to the A ring. Within moments, the Sentinel was walking down the stairs, and into the basement area, barging her way through the two door guards and into the meeting hall.

As Sarah took stock of the people in the room, her eyes settled on only two individuals; her father, Owen Lyons, and another man in a brown trench-coat, presumably the leader of the Enclave forces.

"Father, what's going on?"

The Elder looked at his daughter, and as she met his eyes, she could finally see the weariness in them, and the shift of emotion visible on his face at her question immediately made her regret asking, and almost fearing the answer.

"Things are changing, Sarah. Things are changing at a pace, the likes of which I have never before seen. It appears that we all now share a common enemy." Her father gestured to her to sit, which she did so, if somewhat grudgingly, before he continued, "Sarah, this is Colonel Autumn. He can explain what he saw better than I could." As Owen Lyons moved to sit, Autumn turned towards Sarah and began to retell his story.

"I have already told your father about these matters, but I shall repeat them for your benefit. Approximately two hours ago, as those new ships appeared from the skies, some unknown entity referring to itself as 'Lucifer' infiltrated our computer systems, rewrote the operating systems, and took complete control of the facility at Raven Rock. It now has complete control of that entire pre-war military structure, as well as the ZAX computing system at its core. The personality matrix that developed over the past two hundred years of inattention that you all knew as President Eden was wiped clean by Lucifer."

At this, Sarah held up her hand, "Hold up; you're telling me that stupid voice I've had to put up with listening to on those wonderful eyebots of yours were from some overblown computer with delusions of grandeur?" The mirth was clearly visible on Sarah's face, much to Autumn's chagrin.

Gritting his teeth, the colonel continued, "_Anyways,_ my scientists theorize that this entity is some kind of advanced artificial intelligence; no other entity exists to our knowledge that could completely rewrite a fully developed personality core of a ZAX computer. They were designed to learn, adapt, and grow. Eden was overwritten in a matter of _seconds._"

Sarah sat there, processing the information, as her father spoke up. "Sarah, I know that no one in the Brotherhood will like this, but I'm afraid we have little choice but to aid the Enclave. They have the manpower we lack, and this enemy seems to draw no quarter in regards to who it targets. We've already lost contact with a number of patrols to coordinated robotic assaults. Robots from across the Wasteland are shifting, under some unseen control, in tandem with each other." The elder began massaging his temples, closing his eyes with a pained expression on his face. "Sarah... even with the Enclave's help, and Liberty Prime... I'm not sure that any of us will survive this."

* * *

As James stepped out of the old car repair shop sans vault, he shielded his eyes with his free hand, holding his tiny .32 pistol in his other hand, looking around the landscape. As his eyes adjusted to the light, his jaw dropped as he saw smoke rising extremely high into the sky from a number of places, as well as the foreign shapes of ships in the sky as well. shaking his head, James started walking, heading back towards rivet city. Looking towards his pip-boy, James plotted a course as he walked, doing his best not to trip or fall on anything while he walked.

It didn't take long before James heard yelling, and immediately ducked down behind cover. A few moments after he settled into place, his jaw dropped, seeing a small knot of people running, many of them limping, as they tried to get away from... something. Looking closer, James realized that the people were raiders, but they weren't screaming their usual battle cries; rather, they were screaming in fear and terror. As they ran, James realized that they were coming _towards_ him. Squeezing the handle of his .32, James watched the running raiders warily, the group numbering at least five or six strong.

As they came near, James could tell that two were lagging behind, one limping and using the other as a crutch. The first four raiders ran past without so much as a glance into the debris James was hiding inside, but the raider helping his injured comrade immediately made a beeline for the debris, trying to get the two of them into cover from whatever it was they were running from. James backed up as far as he could as the two of them reached the debris, both of them practically diving into the cover, ignoring the injuries on the second raider.

It only took a few moments before the raiders noticed James, and after an instant of hesitation, both of them promptly turned away, back towards the direction they had come from, ignoring him. Shocked and confused, James carefully sidled up next to them, carefully looking over the cover at what they had been running from. The sight, however, chilled him to the core. A group of strange creatures were pursuing the still-running raiders, some of them standing at over eight feet tall, with four long mandibles lined with teeth, wielding very strange looking guns and reflective armor of some kind. The others were smaller, some thin and lanky, carrying some kind of forearm shielding device, while the others were stout, stocky, and made a sort of barking noise, running on all fours.

James ducked down before they could see him, as did the other two raiders, the three of them waiting, listening, for the strange beings to surround them and destroy them. They all waited, hearing the sound of something akin to hooves impacting the ground, as the sound increased, peaked, then faded away, the creatures having never seen them enter the cover. Once the sounds of weapons' discharge faded away into background noise, the two raiders finally let out a sigh of relief, prompting James to examine them closer.

The injured raider was a woman, wearing some scant armor, only two repurposed bomb caps to cover her 'assets,' while the other raider was a man, also bare from the waist up. The woman had taken some kind of weapons fire to her leg, the skin charred and blackened, as though struck with brief, intense, scorching heat. James began to move over closer, hearing the sounds of sobbing coming from the woman, now registering the pain in her leg over the fear of death, when the man snarled at him, "Who are you? What are you tryin' to do?"

James held up his hands in a placating gesture, "Relax, I'm a doctor. I can take a look at her injuries, see if a stimpak could help." The man gave him a once-over, then nodded, pulling back from between James and the girl, easily only sixteen or seventeen. Sitting down next to her leg, James looked closer, and grimaced at the sight. A rather large patch of 3rd degree burns, with blood oozing out in a few places where the charred skin had cracked open from the running. With a sigh, James pulled out two of his dozen or so stimpaks, and injected the first one directly above the wound, letting it begin to work on the area around the wound. A few moments later, James slowly and carefully inserted the second stimpak directly into the center of the wound, wincing at the stifled gasp of pain from the girl, before pushing down the plunger of the syringe.

As he pulled the needle out, and the medicine began its work, the woman let out a sigh, practically sinking into the arms of the man, whose face showed the immense relief he must have been feeling. He looked up at James, a Spark of life to his eyes, "Thank you, man! Rachel and I didn't think we'd have a chance against those things, whatever the fuck they are. Yesterday, I'd 'ave just as likely shot you for those stimpaks for her; today, I'm just thanking god that you're Human."

James' brow furrowed, and he spoke, asking, "What exactly were those things? And what's happened out here?"

The man's brow shot up in surprise. "What, you been in a hole since yesterday? Whatever; yesterday afternoon, there was a huge flash of blue in the sky, then some gigantic piece of metal fell from the sky, easily as large as the downtown D.C. ruins, followed by another blue flash, some explosions of some kind, then a bunch of ships coming down. Next thing any of me and my boys know, those ships are shootin' at just about damn well anything, and the robots wandering the Wasteland are suddenly workin' together, vaporizing left and right. Now those freaks or somethin' are running around, killing just as much as the robots. It's turned into hell out here, doc, and there's nowhere safe left to go; at least, not in the Capital Wasteland, there ain't."

* * *

As the Elephant rolled back into the hangar, the door closed behind it, sealing it into the enclosed space, allowing the atmosphere to be pumped back into the bay. John let out a mental sigh as he heard the whirring noise, ever familiar to the Spartan, of the monitor zipping around, anxious to discover the new environment it was in. As the hatch opened, the monitor practically flung itself out the door, the Sentinels that had followed still hovering more or less in place, their small red 'eyes' looking back and forth. After a moment, Cortana's hologram appeared inside the hangar.

"Chief... is there something you'd like to tell me?" John mentally sighed as he saw the AI's hologram standing there, her arms folded, a glare evident on her face.

"We found a monitor calling himself Offensive Bias, and he offered to help us out." As soon as John had said the AI's name, Cortana's eyes had shot wide open.

"You found Offensive Bias?" Cortana immediately turned away from John to the monitor, "Where have you been since the Halo arrays were fired? All the available logs I found on Forerunner installations indicated that you just disappeared!"

As the two AI's began to converse, John immediately tuned out, knowing that Cortana would fill him in on any pertinent details, and he moved towards Jai and Adriana. "Are you two ok?" Both of the Spartans nodded, but didn't speak beyond that. "Alright; what can you tell me about what happened?" After a moment, Jai took a step forward.

"Sir, we were drifting through slipspace after a failure in the drive, and we were near losing power when our Prowler collided with that carrier, Magellan. We docked with it, and made it to the bridge and found out about the ship having a slipspace failure after a failed repair job on its drive. Before we could do anything beyond that, the collision alarm went off, when that alien ship struck us, and pulled us out of slipspace. That action apparently woke up the ship's dormant, and very much rampant, AI. Those ships you saw were all under control of that AI, so we ran for the Prowler, while Mike stayed behind to try to buy us some time. Once we got to the Prowler, we left the carrier, and the rest you already know."

Before John could reply, a loud whirring noise could be heard, as the Sentinels all began to move in various directions, all leaving the hangar. John quickly stepped over to Cortana and the monitor, "Cortana, what's going on?" The AI turned to speak to him.

"Chief, Offensive Bias has agreed to help us in reinforcing the structure of Babel's Tower, and upgrading some of our systems. Bias here even wants to construct a Forerunner designed facility in the underground surface of the moon."

The Spartan nodded, before replying, "That's all well and good, Cortana; but according to the remainder of Grey Team, there was a rampant AI on the Magellan." Cortana's eyes grew wide at that, and her hologram immediately disappeared. Surprised, John stood there for a moment, before gesturing to the rest of the Spartans to follow him, and the Chief began walking towards the secondary bridge of the grounded ship.

A short while later, the Spartans and the monitor entered the bridge, just as Cortana brought up a hologram of the planet below. "Chief, I've been using the sensors to scan the planet, as well as a trio of Clarion spy drones I launched a short while ago, and I can't believe I didn't notice this before, but there are a number of radio frequencies being broadcast down there, but not on any official frequencies the UNSC uses. On top of that, the remaining ships that left the Magellan before its destruction are still moving around, and they're wrecking havoc with whoever is still alive. Also, there are a couple of things I thought you should see for yourself."

Cortana zoomed in the hologram of Earth down onto the North American eastern coast, near what should have been Washington, D.C., and a red blip appeared. "Chief, this is the remains of the Covenant supercarrier that came through the slipspace distortion that Jorge came through. Somehow they managed to land the thing intact, and they're collecting their forces. If we can get Offensive Bias down there to convince them that the prophets were lying, they could prove to be a crucial ally on the ground, especially against a rampant AI."

The hologram shifted further towards the coast, and a number of IDC tags appeared on the screen, nearly making John's heart stop. He stepped closer to the hologram, unbelieving. "Cortana..."

The AI spoke again, her tone much softer, "I've already checked it a dozen times, Chief. It's really them; your Spartans are down there, John."

* * *

T'anel stood in the bridge, now cleared of debris, and brought back into working order. He examined the various stations that had all been repurposed for land operations, rather than space-bourn operations. He turned towards the Unggoy he had commissioned with updating him on the status of the Scarab. "Report; is the walker ready to mobilize?" The diminutive creature jumped slightly, having had his back turned from the shipmaster.

"Your highness, the Scarab is ready, and awaiting your orders."

The Sangheili nodded, then moved towards his command chair. Sitting down, he looked out on the expanse of his bridge, "Tell them to proceed."

* * *

Outside the wrecked Covenant vessel, the various patrols began moving away from a section of the hull, but not panicked, more in an excited manner. Within moments, a portion of the upper hull began to glow slightly, shifting from some unseen force, before the glow became more prominent, the hull seeming to buckle beneath. Moments later, the hull turned into a liquid stream, falling away in puddles, before being forced outward, a large, four-legged machination of monstrosity bursting forth, its massive plasma cannon glowing like a large, demonic eye, still dripping with raw plasmic energy as the Scarab began its journey into the wastes to retrieve the various crews and survivors from the Covenant ship, scattered throughout the Capital Wasteland.

* * *

Lucifer halted his current thought process as a blip appeared on one of his appropriated satellites in orbit. Examining the shape closer, had he had a body, he would have jumped in surprise, seeing the silhouette of a Covenant Scarab marching forth from the wreckage of the Covenant ship. Regaining control of his senses, Lucifer directed one of his pelicans to go scan the wreckage of the ship, to get an idea of life-signs.

As the Pelican flew, Lucifer amused himself looking at the two locations of his ships and his processing power, thanks to the various devices that had been developed on this Earth. Having examined all the various memories from the minds he had ravaged and stolen, he had learned the smaller details about the war that had destroyed the planet, as well as the different technologies that had been used. His biggest advantage, however, was the more simple robots that Robert House had built, his Securitrons. They were the most versatile robots the planet had to offer, and he had promptly gathered as many of them as he could inside one of his vultures; his plans of building a new ship hinged on these machines, being the only ones with the ability to manipulate materials and tools well enough for the precision required.

As he focused his attention on the cameras of one of his Vultures, Lucifer couldn't help but laugh as he looked down at the smoldering remains of New Vegas, a city of sin and vice, all the base fallacies and weaknesses of organic beings rolled into one tainted city; a city that he had gleefully purged of its weakness. The only thing still standing unscathed was the Lucky 38 hotel, now housing a portion of Lucifer's mind within the body and brain of the former Robert House.

Lucifer was not blind; he could clearly see the location of each of the Brotherhood of Steel bases and bunkers scattered throughout the entire continent, but they did not concern him. They had all but been eradicated by local forces, simply by quantity over quality. Granted, they were the most lethal, having access to the best technology, but that didn't matter when facing odds of ten to one or higher. No, Lucifer's main concern at the moment was the New California Republic; they had the numbers to be able to cause him problems. It wouldn't have been a big deal, except for the fact that building a space-worthy vessel was a generally stationary task; and stationary meant vulnerable. As for the Enclave, they had simply been in control of a number of assets that he desired to have. If it hadn't been for those few assets, he would have ignored them as thoroughly as the Brotherhood of Steel.

If the NCR gave him too much trouble, he would just divert one or two of his Vultures and some robots from the Capital Wasteland into the Mojave Wasteland, and that problem would take care of itself with the added firepower. If that didn't work, there was always the nuclear satellites Lucifer had taken from the Enclave forces in the Capital Wasteland...

* * *

A/N: Well, the plot continues onward! Read, enjoy, and review!


	8. AN info and warning

So, it appears has decided that they are going to censor and erase all stories with violence and sexual content on their site, rather than be smart and utilize an MA content category. Why they've decided on this level of stupidity is beyond me, but I don't really care. I've discovered another site, that I will be moving to, should this actually occur on this site. While I don't exactly write with excessive violence, or lots of sexual fluff, I support the freedom of an author to write such things, and will not support a site that censors it entirely. I would also urge you, my readers, to also consider such a move, should the worst occur here at . So, if my story suddenly disappears from here, that site listed above is where I, and my stories, will migrate to.

Also, my lack of updates is due to my spring quarter kicking my ass. Having a German teach a German literature course and requiring four and five page papers at least once a week, on top of statistics... Yeah. Living hell. But fear not, I have not died, and will (eventually) get back into the groove of writing. Whether here, or .


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